The Moon is the Sun
by nessa3759
Summary: All is over, the war is won. Ganondorf is dead, but many threats are not. Amidst the chaos of newfound anarchy, Zelda encounters a man she thought she'd never see again, a man who almost certainly wants her dead. The Sages are crumbling and the Hero of Time is having strange hallucinations. The Lost Woods have fallen silent. Something is wrong...terribly wrong. (ZeLink)
1. Lake Hylia

"Where to?" he asked, standing up and offering me his hand.

I took it and stood as well. "Lake Hylia?"

Link smiled and bowed. "Of course, Princess."

I shoved him, a little mad that a smile was playing on my own lips, too. "I've told you never to call me that," I said.

He smirked. "I know, _Zelda_," he said. Then he pulled out his wooden fairy ocarina (he refused to even look at the blue porcelain Ocarina of Time) and played a few notes.

How Epona managed to hear the song and know where it was coming from from so far away, I don't know. However, I do know that that song never fails. Five minutes later, Link was lifting me up onto the mare's back and then hoisting himself up in front of me. "Lake Hylia," he murmured thoughtfully. "Haven't been there since Zora's Domain froze over. Hya!"

At a steady, loping canter, comfortable for me in a skirt, we arrived at the lake in about twenty minutes. The sun was starting to set. A few Zoras were swimming in the water and Dr. Mizumi was out doing some "scientific observations."

Link dismounted, then helped me down. He removed Epona's tack to let her graze freely, then set them, along with his sword, shield, and other equipment, under a nearby tree. After about a minute, we realized the sun would be in our eyes if we sat at the entrance to the canyon, so we moved to the opposite side of the water.

One of the Zoras came to talk with us—it was Ttoren. I'd always liked him.

"Evening, Princess!" he called. "Hey, Link!"

Link walked to the water's edge. "Hullo, Ttoren! How've you been?

Ttoren shrugged. "Pretty normal, since we all unfroze. We really can't thank you enough."

"You already have," I assured him. "Besides, it's what we do."

Ttoren shook his head. "We'll never repay you."

Link raised his eyebrows. "Well, you can start by not saying annoying things like that!"

The Zora laughed. "Right. Well, anyways…wanna go for a dive with me?"

"Sure! Haven't been in the water for ages."

"We'll race to the bridge, how about that? And no special tunics!"

Link grinned. "Of course not!" He pulled his shirt over his head and jumped in.

Ttoren looked to me. "Coming, Princess?"

I blinked. "I'm in a skirt, remember?"

He shrugged. "Zoras don't wear clothes, most of us don't even know what a skirt is. Ready, Link?"

"If you are."

I saw the possibility of an argument and interrupted them. "I'll judge this race," I said.

They grinned at each other. "Go ahead, Your Judgeness," said Ttoren.

I smirked. "On your mark…get set…go!"

Ttoren took off at top speed and Link followed close behind. Technically, the Zora had the advantage, but this race was not about speed, but about stamina, seeing as the bridge was so far away. Both knew that; I could tell Ttoren was actually pacing himself (though no way was he going to go easy on Link). The Hylian, not as fast but stronger, seemed to be doing just fine. This would be a close one.

I rode Epona bareback to the bridge to be able to judge better, and watched Dr. Mizumi while I waited for the swimmers to approach. (He seemed to be taking notes, but went back inside soon, so I concentrated on the race.)

Ttoren won by about a foot. It was expected, seeing as he was a fish, but it had still been a good race. Speed versus strength.

Link shook his ears free of water, then walked up the shore—I caught my breath when I saw his finely toned arm and abdomen muscles. He was lean, strong, and tall; very handsome.

Ttoren resurfaced as well but stayed in the water. "Hey, Princess!" he called.

I gave a start and looked towards him. "My name is Zelda!" I insisted firmly.

"Whatever!" he said nonchalantly. "C'mere."

I walked to the shoreline, wading up to where my boots stopped at the ankles. I didn't want to go in any further; I knew from experience that Lake Hylia got real deep real fast. "Yes?"

He leaned closer and whispered from a couple feet away, "You still got the hots for Link?"

I blushed and looked over my shoulder. The "Hero of Time" was scavenging in the grass for a lost earring or something he'd probably taken off before the race. I turned back to Ttoren. "So what if I do?"

He shrugged and hid a knowing smile. "Just wondering. He always did seem to be fond of Saria. Are you together?"

I stiffened and ignored his question. "He and Saria were childhood friends," I told him. "Besides, she's a Kokiri. She'll never grow up."

"True," he said thoughtfully. "I was just under the impression that all the girls chase after him. Even Nabooru, 'cept she's probably ten years older than him, and that would be…"

"Pedophilia?" I offered helpfully.

"Frowned upon," he amended with a slight cringe. You know—"

"I found it!" Link shouted triumphantly in the background. I rolled my eyes. Ttoren continued.

"You know, Ruto used to like him, too, when they were little and he rescued her from Lord Jabu-Jabu."

I stared. Independent, headstrong Ruto? The Zora princess was currently traveling the world, with no time for love. As far as I knew, she'd never wanted to marry anyway. "Really?"

He nodded and laughed. "Weird, I know." There was a splashing noise. "I don't think he ever liked any of them, though."

Link surfaced abruptly next to Ttoren, making me jump a little. "What's weird?"

"Nothing," I said quickly, turning away to hide my blush. "Aren't you cold?"

"No," he said. He floated on his back, staring at the darkening sky. "I probably will be when I get out, though."

"Well, get out soon!" I demanded crossly. "I'm lonely!"

Link laughed. I loved his laugh. It was strong and beautiful.

After a little while of just chatting quietly and sittin around, the sun dipping behind the canyon walls, Ttoren announced that he needed to leave so as to reach Zora's Domain before curfew.

"Alright," I said. "We'll see you soon, right, Ttoren?"

"Of course," he promised. He clapped Link on the back. "Good race, mate."

"Same to you," Link responded.

The Zora turned to go, then stopped. "Oh, and Princess Zelda?"

I blinked. "Yes?"

He gave me an impish grin. "Keep in mind what I said, okay?"

I laughed a little. "Okay. See you soon!" I waved.

He gave a little salute then disappeared beneath the dark, rolling waves. Link stepped onto shore and began to dry himself off. "What did he mean?" he asked.

I shrugged and looked away. "Oh, nothing important, really, just joking about my love interest."

"Ah." It was a very vague comment—I couldn't really tell what he meant. "Anything in particular?"

I swallowed. "He told me about Ruto."

Link burst out laughing. "Ruto! I'd forgotten about her! Damn frightening, that girl was!"

I gave a small smile. "So you never did like her? Or Saria?"

He shook his head. "No, I always liked you, Zellie," he said sincerely.

"You're sweet," I said fondly.

He sat next to me and started playing with my hair, undoing the three braids down my back and twisting the black locks between his fingers. "I'm just telling the truth."

"Impa always teases me," I told him. "Says of course I had to go and fall in love with the Hero of Time and make life difficult for myself." I laughed. "You _are_ quite the handful."

"Oh?" he said. "_I'm _quite the handful? If I recall correctly, _you_ were the one who got captured by Ganondorf and needed _me_ to rescue you!"

"At least I could swim before the age of fifteen!" I shot back good-naturedly.

"Why, you!" he muttered and threw a fistful of sand at me. I giggled and ducked, then grabbed the blanket we'd taken with us and tossed it over his head, then took off running. He made an odd growling noise and tore the blanket off him, then started after me; I was laughing. He was faster than I was, and I was in a dress anyway; so I decided just trip him instead of attempting to outrun him. When he was right behind me, I abruptly turned around, causing him to fall over backwards into the sand. Unfortunately, I managed to stumble over my bootlaces at the same time and fell on top of him clumsily. Smooth, Zelda—real coordinated.

After a split second, we both opened our eyes (probably closed them in the first place from the impact of the fall) and promptly realized what an awkward position we were in, pressed up against each other and our noses centimeters apart. I immediately began to get off, but Link held me down and kissed me.

I froze automatically, but after a second I leaned back into him, his arms entwining around my waist and into my long, straight hair. He held the kiss for a good long time, and I really hated myself for being the one to break it. (I needed to _breathe_, okay? Don't judge me!) He didn't say anything, just sat up, pulled me to his chest and stared up at the waking stars. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him, listening to the beat of his heart. A way's away, Epona snorted and clopped her hooves a bit, probably spooked by a snake in the grass or something. Crickets started chirping and the night grew cooler. I was glad for his warmth.

After a little while, I realized how utterly exhausted I was. "Link?"

"Mm," he said vaguely. He sounded a bit weary, too.

"I'm tired."

He turned his head to look at the blanket we'd brought, now half-buried in the sand. "If the blanket's itchy, it's your fault." He sighed and got up to retrieve it.

I giggled. "It's your fault for provoking me into throwing it in the first place," I pointed out knowledgeably. He muttered something I didn't catch that sounded unfriendly. Heheheh.

We moved farther away from the shore, under the tree where we'd put Epona's tack and Link's equipment. Geniuses that were are, we hadn't brought anything that mildly resembled a pillow, so Link got the ground and I got his shoulder. The blanket _was_ a bit uncomfortable, unfortunately, but I pulled it up to my chin anyway because it was cold.

With Link's arms around me and exhaustion taking over, I felt like I'd never been more at peace in my life. Normally he fell asleep before I did, but tonight I was just so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open. I don't really remember much after that, I was so drained and my mind was hazy, but I do recall Link humming a very soft verse of my lullaby as he cradled my head against his chest. Sweetest thing ever. Whatever Impa might've said, I knew that I had chosen the love of my life well. I thought of Ttoren and smiled. If only he knew.


	2. Visions of the Dead

In accordance to falling asleep before Link, I also woke up before he did. The down side to that? The sun hadn't even _begun_ to rise yet. It was lighter than midnight but nowhere near daybreak, probably around two or three o'clock.

"Dammit, Zelda," I muttered to myself, getting up and getting dressed (opting for an old tunic instead of the skirt), for I knew I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. I pulled my black hair into its usual three braids down my back. "Now I know why Impa always tried to get me to sleep in…if I didn't, I'd wake up at midnight!"

I sighed and sat at the lake's edge, just watching the water, made white or silver in places by beams of moonlight glancing off it. It was very pretty. It was also more or less quiet. Not completely silent—that would've just been unnatural. I could hear the swish of leaves and the creak of the wooden rope bridge in the gentle breeze. Owls hooted, and a few fish disturbed the glassy calmness of the lake, making ripples and muffled splashes if they surfaced. It was very beautiful.

Then somebody shouted.

I almost cried out from shock, myself. I jumped up and whirled around, facing the direction the sound had come from. I didn't see anything at first, then a sudden movement drew my gaze to under the tree where'd we'd slept. Link was writhing in his sleep, eyes shut tight and mouth open, like he was in pain. I stood there for a moment, frozen with terror, then rushed to his side. He yelled again and I nearly fell over; he seemed to momentarily relax, then covered his face with his hands and began shaking, like he was having a fit or something.

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently. "Link!" I said loudly, surprised a bit by my own voice. "Link, wake up—LINK!"

He had opened his eyes and, still half asleep and engulfed in a hallucination, shoved my hands off him, swung himself upright and grabbed hold of the collar of my shirt threateningly.

"Link! Link, it's me, Zelda!"

The fury and absolute panic in his wide blue eyes dimmed; he seemed to recognize who I was. I suddenly noticed that there was a deep, short cut on his cheek, dripping an unnatural amount of dark blood all down his neck and onto his white undershirt. Tears were rolling steadily down his frightened face—actually, it seemed to be almost obvious that he was holding back choking sobs now that I realized it.

We stared at each other for a moment that was an eternity. Then his eyes seemed to cloud over and he relaxed (more like collapsed) into me, still shaking but letting me hold him. "_Twinrova_," he whispered, crying into my shoulder and sounding completely, unquestionably terrified.

My eyes widened. I knew Link had nightmares. Who wouldn't, having gone through the things he had? Fighting giant arachnids and electrical energy-suckers from the age of ten, then proceeding to battle evil phantoms and fire-breathing dragons seven years later while still recovering from the shock of being trapped in the Sacred Realm until he was old enough to become the Hero of Time—I knew that he was constantly haunted by the things he'd done and the horrors he'd seen. But as long as I had known about these nightmares, I had never known him to dream of Twinrova. It was as if his brain had just permanently shut them out, like even his imagination knew its limits.

Link never talked about the sorceress sisters, Kotake and Koume. The two witches that had tortured and brainwashed his friend Nabooru, the two hags that had set Iron Knuckles on him as a child, the two beasts that had seized him from the Door of Time before he was pulled into the Sacred Realm and attempted to torture him into obeying Ganondorf. They almost succeeded. And then, seven years later, they nearly killed him once again.

That was really all I knew about his final battle with Twinrova. They nearly killed him. By the time the Sages realized what was happening, it was almost too late. I had managed to teleport him out of there in time, but in addition to be burned, frozen, and cut up, he had also apparently been pushed off a high platform by the witches' ghosts, causing most of his ribs to crack and giving him a concussion that lasted four days. Luckily, he was a strong young man; if he hadn't been, he almost certainly would've died. But that was all I knew.

There were rumors that the sorceresses hadn't even given him a chance to fight, that they'd taken away his sword, or that they turned invisible and one taunted him into attacking while the other approached him from behind (though how he succeeded in destroying them if that happened, I don't know). Many others, all brutal and terrifying. I didn't believe any of them. I didn't think that they weren't true, I just refused to accept anything that Link didn't tell me himself, and since he'd never spoken about it, the subject remained a mystery.

Link's crying, unlike mine, was very quiet and almost dignified in a way, and for some reason, it made me want to cry, too. After what felt like hours but was probably only about fifteen minutes, he stopped completely, his tears all dried up. I tried not to wince at the sight of his blood on my tunic as he finally pulled away, and instead, seeing as it didn't make any difference, wiped his cut cheek with my sleeve. If it pained him, he didn't notice.

He looked at me, making eye contact with great effort, and said, "Sorry." His voice cracked and he glanced away.

I glared at him fiercely and gave him a hug. "Why?"

"It was just a dream."

_Just a dream? _I thought privately, but didn't press him anymore. "It's okay," I said. "It's still really late. Go back to sleep, Link."

I thought he might cry again. "I can't."

I took his hands in mine. "Yes, you can. It'll be alright." A sudden blink of light drew my eyes to near where Link had rested his head as he slept—it was the moonlight flashing on another pool of blood. But…that was way too much blood for just a cheek cut. How had he gotten that, anyway?

I frowned and glanced at him; he stared back at me. His blue eyes, still frightened, gave me a meaningful look. I gripped his hands tighter, and realized that he was freezing cold, though sweating like it was a hundred degrees. Then suddenly, I understood. "They're not letting you tell me any more, are they?"

He shook his head. He abruptly seemed very drained and sickly, and it was like he was biting his own tongue or something. I looked him over and saw that it wasn't just his cheek that was cut: his left sleeve had been torn open and that arm—his sword arm—was bloodied. And all the blood on his neck! Of course that hadn't just come from the gash on his face. Why hadn't I seen all of this before?

I was in total shock. This couldn't be happening! The two witches were dead! Link had killed them, not so long ago! They couldn't be torturing him in his sleep; it just wasn't possible! …Or was it? Had Twinrova discovered an even darker, blacker type of magic that allowed them to return from the realm of the deceased back to the world of the living, even if only through dreams and visions?

Neither of us moved or said anything. It was like we'd been frozen in stone. I wanted to comfort him, to tell him it would be fine…but I didn't even know what had just happened. All I could get out was a whispered, "It wasn't just a dream."

He shook his head.

"Are…are they gone? They're not still…?"

He shook his head.

I immediately threw my arms around him and kissed his cheek (the one that wasn't plastered with dried blood). I sort of felt like I needed his comfort right now almost as much as he needed mine, selfish as that may be.

He held me tightly and closed his eyes, his breathing slow and deep but rasping. "I'm going to dress your arm, okay?" I said after a little while. He nodded, then tore off the un-bloodied arm of his shirt and handed it to me. I bound the gash on his left arm tightly (probably cut off his circulation), and that stopped the bleeding pretty well. I only hoped it wasn't too late to stop any infection. He winced a little as I wrapped it, but he didn't say anything, didn't complain.

"There, all done. You okay?"

He nodded.

We were silent for a very long time. I didn't want to say anything to remind him of his dream, but I needed to know. "So you can't tell me anything?" I asked finally.

"No," he said.

"But they're gone, right? They're not in your head anymore?"

"They were not in my head, I was in theirs."

This didn't make any sense to me for some reason. "What happened?"

"I can't tell you."

I frowned. "Why not?"

For a moment I was afraid I'd pushed him too far and that he was going to go under again, but he responded after a short silence. His voice was suddenly firm as he said, "I don't want you to worry about me."

I was about to say that that didn't help, but then I realized that what he had just said wasn't in response to my question, which he had completely ignored. He was telling me to drop it.

_I'm going to worry about you anyway, and you know it, Link_. "Okay," I acquiesced. "Will you go back to sleep now?"

He pulled back to look at me. Though his expression was saying sarcastically, _I thought you weren't going to worry_, his clear blue eyes were still wide and frightened at the prospect of sleep, but most of all, immensely tired. He stared at the ground, then said, "Don't…don't leave my side."

I smiled, a bit sadly. "I'm not going anywhere."

He looked at me gratefully, then slowly lay back down, as though the movement physically hurt him. I didn't want him to sleep on the ground, but it wasn't like we had anything else. He held my hands tightly and closed his eyes, but I could tell from his breathing that he wasn't asleep. So I did the logical thing—I sang to him.

It was a lullaby that I'd learned from the Sheikah when I'd spent time with them, very pretty, slightly creepy, but hey! the Sheikah are the definition of creepy. Leave it to them to make up a song titled "The Moon is the Sun."

* * *

_The moon is the sun, the stars are the sky_

_Sleep will find you wherever you lie_

_Day will come down, the birds will fly high_

_Sleep will bring comfort whenever you cry_

_... ... ..._

_The moon is the sun, the dark is so bright_

_Sleep will show you the path to the light_

_The clouds will open, the door will show white_

_Sleep will rescue you, will give you flight_

_... ... ..._

_The moon is the sun, the wind is the rain_

_Sleep will save you from endless bane_

_And if from evils, from evils you refrain_

_The Shadow Folk will grant to you sleep once again_

* * *

He didn't fall asleep for perhaps the next hour. It definitely would've been longer, though, had he not been so exhausted and had I not kept repeating the verses of the enchanting lullaby. His grip on my hands relaxed and his breathing became deeper and more even.

I did as he asked and didn't leave his side for about an hour or two, holding his hands and watching him sleep. (That sounds kind of creepy, now that I think about it…I mean, literally, I'm just now thinking about it.) He was okay for a while, but then he started fidgeting a bit; he moaned once or twice and at one point said my name, but then stopped almost immediately afterwards. His hands turned hot, then cold, then hot again. He was as pale as the setting moon. Something occurred to me, and I put one of my hands to his forehead.

_Oh, Goddesses, _I thought. He was burning up like he had the flu or something. I stood up quickly, grabbed the towel that had held food from our lunch the previous day, then soaked it in the freezing waters of Lake Hylia. I wrung it out and hurried back to Link's side, placing it on his forehead and bathing his face in it. He relaxed visibly at the touch of the cool cloth, and though his odd temperature swings didn't stop (probably the result of Kotake's ice and Koume's fire), it didn't look like he was having any more dreams.

I lost track of time and fell asleep myself, leaning against the tree trunk and still holding Link's hand. Though I hadn't been at all tired when I'd woken up around two or three, I was a bit drained from the shock of Link's Twinrova dream. I only slept for about another hour, and it was seven when Epona woke me up by neighing loudly at Dr. Mizumi, who had apparently tried to feed her a carrot (that was probably radioactive).

I ran over to calm her down and yell at the lake scientist, who scurried back into his house. I was brushing the mare's brown coat free of chunks of dirt when somebody called my name.

"Princess Zelda!"

I jumped and turned around. "What?"

A Zora surfaced from the depths of the lake a way's away. It was Ttoren. "I came to see if you two were still here. I've got something to ask you."

I glanced at Link; he was sleeping peacefully and hadn't noticed I was gone. I walked to the water's edge to speak with the Zora. "Yes?"

"When was the last time you saw the Sages?"

I was a bit surprised by this question. "Well, we saw Darunia about a week ago, and I see Impa almost every day, Rauru is always—"

"No, that's not what I meant," he said quickly. "I mean, when was the last time you saw them all in the same place? Including you?"

I gave him a look. "If it wasn't including me, I wouldn't have been there, genius."

Ttoren blinked; he opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Just answer me, please."

I thought about his question. "All in the same place at the same time. I don't know…I wasn't there when Link awoke the last of the six, so that wasn't all of us…probably at Ganon's Tower, I guess. Why?"

Ttoren fidgeted uncomfortably. I narrowed my eyes. "Go on," I urged him.

"Princess Ruto…" he began, then trailed off.

"Princess Ruto what?"

"…has come home," he finished.

I stared. "Really?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes, she has, and she hasn't said a word about anything to anyone, and she isn't staying within the Domain. She came back to say hello to her father, then left 'to find Nabooru.'"

This was getting weirder by the minute. "But Zoras can't go to the desert."

"That's the strange part," Ttoren said (there was a stranger part?). "She didn't go to Gerudo Valley, she went to the Ice Cavern."

"The Ice Cavern?" said a surprised voice. "There's nothing there but a couple lonely Freezor and an empty treasure chest."

I looked over my shoulder and nearly died of fright to find Link standing right behind me—I mean, _right_ behind me. I actually almost fell into the lake. Thanks, Link.

Ttoren, however, didn't seem even mildly surprised (probably because he'd seen Link when I hadn't). "I know! That's why I wanted to see Princess Zelda…she's a Sage and all. I heard that strange things have been happening to them lately…Darunia was injured in an explosion inside Dodongo's Cavern—"

"_What_?"

"—and the Lost Woods have apparently lost their music…I guess Saria doesn't play her song anymore. And now Nabooru's gone to the Ice Cavern or something?"

Link and I exchanged worried glances, though there was something more to his that I couldn't detect the meaning of. "Saria's stopped playing?" I said.

Ttoren nodded emphatically. "The Woods are completely silent."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Kaepora Gaebora."

Link looked as if he didn't know whether to be amused or upset by this. "That old owl's still around?"

Ttoren shrugged. "Apparently."

I paused, then said, "So what does this have to do with when I saw the Sages at Ganon's Tower?"

"That was the only place when something bad could've happened to you all at once," he explained. "Princess Ruto hasn't been the same since, and neither have the others."

"Nobody has," Link reminded him. "It was a _war_, Ttoren."

He scowled. "I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this—"

"You're doing a fine job," I assured him. "I know exactly what you mean."

His dark eyes lit up. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've felt it too. It's like my senses are clogged up. "

"That's what Ruto said, like she couldn't detect magic anymore."

"When did she say that?"

"When she was talking to her father about her work as a Sage."

"Saria's sick," Link said abruptly.

I looked at him. "What?"

He swallowed. "It's the same as what got the Great Deku Tree sick. Not Gohma, I mean, but the illness that Ganondorf implanted in the forest. I've been talking to her—you remember that old ocarina song she taught me? It still worked, up until very recently. It's never worked very well, of course, and starting about, say, two months ago, it didn't work at all. It just stopped."

"That was when the Lost Woods became silent," Ttoren put in.

This was really worrying me now. "But I see Impa all the time, she looked fine!"

"And Impa has every right to lie to you," Link pointed out.

Now that I was really thinking about it, Impa hadn't seemed her usual, punctual self lately. She'd been coughing a lot. Or was that just ideas being put in my head?

"That accounts for five of us," I said. "Me, Ruto, Saria, Darunia, and Impa. What about Nabooru and Rauru?"

"I don't know about Rauru," Link said, "but I haven't seen Nabooru in a very, very long time."

"Neither have I," I said, "which is why we need to know." I turned to Ttoren. "Are you sure she went to the Ice Cavern?"

"Positive," he said firmly.

"Then that's where we're going," Link said, catching onto my idea. Well, part of my idea.

"No," I corrected, "that's where _I'm_ going. _You_, Mister Hero of Time, are going to the Sacred Realm."

"What!" Link protested immediately. "No way, I am _not_ going to baby-sit some old guy while you're—"

"Freezing my ass off looking for a Gerudo girl that will most likely not even be there!"

"So what?" Link said.

"And why will Nabooru not even be there?" Ttoren asked. "That's where Ruto said she was."

"If Nabooru was at the Ice Cavern, she was looking for something," I said. "Something that _we_ already have. And if she wanted that, then there's someplace she really wants to go—someplace Ruto can take her."

Realization dawned in Link's eyes. "I…I think I'll take the Sacred Realm."

"I thought so," I said. "I'm going to need your boots, Link. Oh, and Ttoren?"

The Zora snapped to attention. "Yes, Princess?"

"You wouldn't happen to have one of those special tunics of yours for me, would you?"

Still completely confused, he nodded. "I can do that."

"Thanks. If you go now, can you be back within an hour or two?"

He didn't respond, just dove beneath the waves. I turned to Link. "What do you think Nabooru wants at the Water Temple?"

"No idea," Link said, "but I must've overlooked it when I went there the first time."

A thought occurred to me. "If she gets far enough, will she have to fight Dark Nabooru or something?"

Link made a face. "I hope not. That guy was more trouble than he was worth. Besides, Morpha's gone, so all the evil enchantments should be gone along with it."

"True." I sighed. "So Nabooru must've found the empty chest that contained the Iron Boots, then contacted Ruto through the Sage telepathy bond."

"There's a Sage telepathy bond?"

"Mm-hm. It must've taken a lot to convince Ruto to come back from her travels and help her. And now they're meeting at the Ice Cavern."

"That's the only thing that makes sense."

I changed subjects abruptly. "So how did you sleep?"

He blushed and looked away. "Fine," he mumbled.

I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "How's your arm?"

"Stinging." He must've caught my look of concern, because he added quickly, "But fine. It's fine."

"And how's your fever?"

Link was surprised. "Fever?" he repeated.

"Yeah," I said, "you had a really bad fever in the night. You're not still sick or anything?"

"I don't even remember that," he said. "I never _felt_ sick."

I frowned. "That's weird. But at least you're better."

"Yeah," he agreed, his mind clearly elsewhere. He bit his lip—I inhaled sharply—and then turned around to look at the rising sun. "It's pretty," he commented mildly.

I blinked. "Yes, it is. Why?"

He shrugged. "I just haven't seen it like this in a long time, over the lake and all."

I had no idea where this conversation was going, so I just didn't say anything. Link put his un-bandaged arm around me and just watched the sunrise. I waited for Ttoren to return and kept an eye on Epona. We were silent for a long time.

Link broke the serenity with a soft voice, rather unlike him, that at first I thought I'd imagined. "Thank you."

I looked at him. "What for?"

"Breaking the hallucination last night."

"Oh." I leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you too."

There was another short break, then Epona neighed abruptly, and very loudly, too. I stood up to yell at Dr. Mizumi, but when I turned around, it was not Dr. Mizumi that stood before the brown mare. It was someone I knew just as well—better, in fact. Oh, did I know him.

"Hello, Princess Zelda," the man said evenly.

"Hello, Sheik," I responded stiffly. "Have you come to kill me?"


	3. The Lost Sheikah

**Hey guys. ^o^' Yes, yes, I know, I know! Go ahead, shoot me, I deserve it! I'm incredibly lazy, and not very consistent. Sorry about that x'D I have written a ton of fanfiction before, and this always happens. *sigh* Just bear with me here, okay?**

**-Nessa**

* * *

_You are back._

_Yes, my Lord. Your requests have been fulfilled,_ and _the__ Door has been shut._

_One step ahead, as always, my faithful Sage._

_Two, my Lord, if I may say so myself._

_Pray do tell, Sage._

_The Ice Cavern has been set._

_Yes, that was what I ordered. Go on._

_Someone knows, my Lord. Someone outside the plan._

What?!

_No, no, my Lord, this is fine! When he finds out that the Sages are falling, he will play double-agent for the life of his Princess! And then—_

_No, no more explanation is needed. You are not at fault. I apologize, dear servant, now I understand. You always were rather brilliant, for being what you are._

_You are far too kind, my Lord, I'm blushing. Your orders?_

_Make sure the operation goes smoothly. That is all._

_Yes, my Lord._

_...Sage. There is something else I require._

_Anything, my Lord._

_The treasure that the Gerudo is looking for...I want it. Get it for me after they die._

_With pleasure, my Lord._

* * *

Link gaped. He was totally speechless. I could barely imagine what was going through his head right now. I could hardly blame him, either—the man he was seeing in front of his eyes was an almost perfect image of what I had looked like to him for a period of time seven years after he'd taken the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. And he had the same name.

The Sheikah did not seem to notice Link's discomfort. "Kill you?" he repeated. "No, not kill you, Princess." Then he laughed. It was a cold laugh. "Princess! What a title. I think you belong with the Gerudo, you thieving scum. I won't kill you just yet...we just need to talk."

I frowned slightly. He seemed pretty intimidating for just wanting to talk. "You know why I did what I did, Sheik, do you not?"

"No, I do," he assured me. "I just need to know...why you chose _me_ to impersonate."

I looked over my shoulder at Link. _Shock_ was too gentle an emotion to describe the look on his face. I turned back to Sheik. "He does not know. It's a lengthy story, and any minute, a Zora is going to show up and ask for an explanation about another highly-complex subject. You always did prefer to turn up at the worst time possible. And I don't suppose this can wait?"

Sheik glared at me, his red eyes fiery. "_Wait_? You've made me wait seven years, Zelda. You think I came here just to wait until you've finished your business with a _fish_?"

"You stuck up jerk!" I muttered to nobody in particular. Then, more loudly, I added, "I never liked you in the first place, Sheik. I could tell you absolutely _nothing_ and you couldn't make me talk. Do you really want that?"

The Sheikah said nothing. His eyes had lost all trace of emotion—I couldn't detect what he was thinking at all. I suppressed a sigh. Of course I couldn't, he was from the Shadow Folk. I had never been a very convincing Sheikah, had never learned to do that, though the trick with the Deku Nut had worked better than I'd thought it would.

Link took this silence as an opportunity to express his confusion. "Who the hell is this?" he asked me hotly, jerking a thumb towards Sheik.

I glanced at him, deciding how to do this as quickly as possible, then said in a slightly pained voice, "Link, Sheik. Sheik, Link. There, formalities over with."

He gave me a very severe glare, like, _Oh, thanks, now I understand!_ I glared right back. "It's a long story!"_  
_

"We're not going anywhere!" he retorted.

"_Actually_," I said forcefully, through clenched teeth, "_we are_!"

Sheik raised his eyebrows. "Are you two—"

"NO!" Link and I both shouted before he could get anymore words in.

He backed up a couple steps, eyes wide, and held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay! Sheesh!"

I started pacing a bit. _Any minute now, we're going to have a confused Zora asking for an explanation on something that I am not going to be able to explain very well, and he chooses _now_ to come make death threats? Please, Goddesses, make my life more inconvenient!_

_..._

_That was sarcasm, Goddesses, please don't take that literally—_

"I'm back!"

I froze, then turned around slowly. I sort of felt like throwing something. "Hello, Ttoren. Could you give me a minute?"

The Zora blinked. "Sure."

I looked back at Link and Sheik. "Okay, this is how this is going to work. I'm sorry, Link, but Sheik needs an explanation more than you do right now. He and I are going to go to the Ice Cavern and look for Ruto and Nabooru. You are going to stay here and explain the situation to Ttoren, then go to the Sacred Realm and see Rauru. Okay?"

Link and Sheik looked at each other, then seemed to remember that they were still rather suspicious of each other at this point and immediately broke eye contact. I found this vaguely comical but didn't laugh. "Why does _he_ get to go with you?" Link said.

"Because I can give him an explanation while we're on the way to the Ice Cavern. I don't like it either, I just really have to go, I don't want to miss Ruto and Nabooru! They might not even be there by the time we get there."

"I'm fine with it," Sheik said stiffly, after a short silence.

Link scowled. "Fine." I could tell he was still a little bit upset by having to go "baby-sit some old guy."

I turned around. "Ttoren!" I called.

He surfaced. "You ready?"

"Yeah." I walked to the water's edge, and he tossed me a dark blue tunic made of light, flowing fabric (quite unlike the Goron's Tunic, which was very rough and stiff). "Thanks."

"No problem." He looked around a little awkwardly. "Um..."

"Link will explain everything," I promised. I looked at the sky; it was around nine. "I have to go now, thanks again!" I turned around and ran back before he could say anything else.

I put a sudden rush on things. "Link, your boots!"

"In the knapsack."

"Thanks." I ran to where we'd dumped Epona's tack, reminding me of something else. "Sheik! You know how to tack up a horse?"

"Of course," he said, and grabbed the mare's saddle and bridle obediently. I proceeded to empty the knapsack of everything but the iron-tipped boots (damn heavy, those things were), the bow and quiver (which, as much as I didn't like, I slung over my back, as I had no sword), and of course the handy hookshot. I also put the Zora Tunic that Ttoren had given me in there.

Sheik had just finished tacking up Epona when Link asked me, "Where are we rendezvousing? When we're done, I mean?"

I hadn't thought about this. "Well, I might have to try and follow Ruto and Nabooru to the Water Temple, so if I'm not back by the end of tomorrow, that's definitely where I am, so you should probably go there, too, but if I find them and I don't have to do anything else..."

"You could just rendezvous at the Water Temple anyway, or back here at the lake," said Ttoren logically.

I jumped a little; I'd forgotten the Zora was there. "Sounds like a plan," Link said.

With a very awkward exchange of "see you later"s and "don't get yourself killed"s, Sheik and I were mounting Epona and Link and Ttoren were discussing what was going on. Apparently, though Sheik knew how to tack up a horse, he knew absolutely nothing about riding one, so I rode in front while he awkwardly held on by gripping the saddle with his legs, trying not to touch me at all costs. I set Epona off at a light canter so he wouldn't be _too_ uncomfortable. I was actually kind of...satisfied, I guess...that he was unhappy with the arrangements. Served him right.

But the awkwardness was too soon much for me to bear. "You know," I said conversationally, "we technically could've gotten through to Zora's Domain straight through Lake Hylia."

There was a pause. "Then why didn't we?"

"Because it could still be frozen over and we'd end up nowhere. Or worse than nowhere. Or dead."

"I think _dead_ qualifies as 'worse than nowhere.'"

"Yeah..."

I practically held my breath for the rest of the ride and was immensely relieved when we finally reached the entrance to Zora's Domain. Or, the entrance to the entrance to Zora's Domain...where Zora's River begins...with the waterfall...yeah, that place. You know?

We both dismounted without a word. I took a running start and jumped over the thin stretch of river separated us from the rest of Zora's-River-Domain-Area. Sheik followed much more gracefully and we ran under the rock overhand and up the hill to where we had a bean stalk planted. I had only ridden it before with one person...how this was going to work with two, I didn't know.

We ended up standing back to back and trying not to push the other off the map (though I nearly sent Sheik tumbling to his death a few times) and jumped off a bit sooner than we needed to. Mentally, I started listing the things we were going to do throughout the day, just to give myself a plan of some sort. I was scolding myself for forgetting to explain absolutely anything to Sheik when I realized that I was a dumbass.

I stopped walking. "Shit," I said mildly. "We can't even...we can't even...oh, we can't even_—_"

"I wasn't aware that 'even' is a verb," Sheik said dryly. "What are you on about, Zelda?"

"I..." I started pacing. "I don't have an instrument."

"Thank you for explaining."

I glared at him. "I can't get into the Domain without playing my Lullaby! The waterfall won't open otherwise, and I didn't bring Link's ocarina!"

Sheik blinked. "'The waterfall won't open'...?"

I felt like hitting him. "I thought Sheikah are supposed to know about this sort of stuff! In order to get into Zora's Domain, you have to stand on the plaque that has the Triforce painted on it and play a song called Zelda's Lullaby, named very creatively after my ancestors"—he snorted at this, probably at the fact that all the Princess Zeldas before me hadn't really been my ancestors_—"_and then the waterfall will stop flowing, allowing you to enter the Domain."

For some reason, his expression was smug. "Then aren't you lucky you have me?"

I frowned. "What?"

"Impa always used to whistle, all the time. It was so annoying that everyone eventually picked it up. Don't tell me you've forgotten your old caretaker."

"I haven't," I said defensively. "So you can whistle? You think that'll work?"

"Yeah. What are the notes?"

I thought for a moment, then said the names of the notes to the rhythm of the song. "B, D A, G-A B, D A," I recited. "B, D F, G D, C-B A."

He went over it a couple times in his head, asked me to repeat it once, then nodded. "So where do I have to stand?"

"It's up here." We walked over a few rope bridges and came to a large space with a waterfall and a few twisting ledges that, from experience, weren't very stable. Instead of following the ledges, I jumped off into the shallow water and crossed to the other side of the area, climbing up a ladder (how convenient) and taking a shortcut directly onto the last ledge. I pointed to a stone tablet on the ground right in front of the waterfall with a gold Triforce painted onto it.

"Right there," I said over the roar of the waterfall. "Do you remember the song?"

"You underestimate me," Sheik said obnoxiously, then stepped onto the plaque. "Are you sure they'll hear it over this racket?"

I shrugged. "Even I don't know how the hell this works. Just play."

He played.

I think I died a little bit when the waterfall actually opened. "Thank Goddesses!" I breathed.

Sheik didn't even look at me_—_he jumped across the gap and walked through the opening. I followed, still a little shaky for some reason.

In the tunnel, everything got really dark, really fast. For one terrifying moment I didn't know where I was, then suddenly everything was bright again. Too bright. What was creating all that light?

Ice.

My jaw dropped. "Ttoren said that they'd mostly unfrozen, even if the ice at the bottom still hadn't!"

"Ttoren was wrong," Sheik pointed out (and he says _I'm_ the sarcastic one).

Not only was the entire place frozen, it was frozen more then the last time I'd been there. Not only were all the entrances to anywhere covered up by red ice (which could only be melted with blue fire, logically), the ground was covered in a thick layer of frost and chunks of the frozen waterfall had actually broken off from their own weight, like icicles, and shattered against more ice below.

"Come on," I said. "Nothing's going to change if we stand here gaping."

Accepting this as true, Sheik followed me to the chamber of King Zora XVI which, like everywhere else, was blocked up by red ice. Sheik, never having seen the stuff before, was naturally curious. "What is this?" he asked.

"Red ice," I said. "It can only be melted with blue fire."

"That logic," he remarked, "is some of the best I've ever heard."

I laughed. Laughed? Yeah, laughed. Strange. Don't recall doing that since...ever.

"Can it be broken otherwise?" he asked. "Assuming that we don't have blue fire."

I sighed, humor gone. "No, we don't...I should've been prepared for this...but yeah, I'm sure you can chip through it. I'm not sure what you would use, though."

"Megaton Hammer would be useful right about now," he muttered. "Don't suppose we have that either?"

I opened my mouth, but he interrupted with, "That's a rhetorical question." I shut my mouth.

After studying the ice for another few minutes, he pulled out a knife. "If I tried to cut it, it would probably break the knife," he said, "but if I can just crack it, we can work from there."

I made a noise of agreement and slumped down against the wall, feeling terrible. The only sound was the chink of Sheik's knife against the red ice, signaling his unsuccessful attempts to break it. At this rate we certainly weren't going to get to Ruto and Nabooru before they left_—_it'd be a miracle if we did. I felt pretty useless. I didn't like that chinking noise.

"You were gone," I said suddenly.

Sheik stopped. "What?"

"That's the only reason," I said. "I'd met you before, yeah, but that didn't play any part."

"Zelda, you know how easily you can annoy the shit out of a person by doing that?"

I blinked and looked at him. "Doing what?"

"Talking in riddles, like you always do. I think that's the one thing you picked up accurately from the Sheikah."

"Oh," I said. "I meant why I chose to impersonate you for seven years. You were gone. One person can't exist in two places at once, you know, and since we all thought you were dead, I could just pretend to be you."

He turned around and resumed trying to crack the ice, with a little more force. "Who's 'we'?"

I shrugged. "The Sheikah. Me."

"I wasn't dead," he said (thank you Captain Obvious). Was that just me imagining things, or was his voice quavering a tiny bit? "I was trapped."

"Where?" I asked. "There aren't very many tight places a real Sheikah can't get out of."

There was a very long silence. Too long for my liking. _Chink. Chink. Chink._

"Sheik."

_Chink._

"Tell me where."

_Chink._

"Sheik?"

_Chink._

"Sheik!"

_Crack_.

I started; he'd shoved his knife into the red ice with such force that it shattered a thin layer of it, shards of the ice breaking against the stone ground and flying in all directions. One nicked the back of my hand, causing a tiny little bead of blood to roll down off my fingers. "Sheik!" I exclaimed, distressed. "What's wrong with you?"

There was another silence. Short this time.

"I was brainwashed," he muttered finally, "and turned into an Iron Knuckle by Twinrova."

...

Oh, Goddesses.

"Are you happy?" he asked through clenched teeth, clutching the knife's handle so hard his fingers turned white. "Are you happy, now that you know? Did you ever ask Nabooru what it felt like, being turned into an Iron Knuckle? Did you ever ask her about the things she'd done? You don't keep your mind when you turn into one, but you keep all your memories of being one if you turn back. Did you know that, Zelda?"

I wanted to tell him I was sorry. I knew that wouldn't be enough.

"I killed my little sister, Zelda," he said. It was almost as if now that he'd started telling me all this, he didn't want to stop. He'd kept it bottled up too long. "I killed her. Don't tell me I didn't know what I was doing, or that I couldn't help it. Don't tell me that. It doesn't change the fact that I killed her, little Nílaba, only fourteen and kept wondering for seven years where her brother had gone and why her parents were dead. She came looking for me; she looked everywhere. Because she loved me, Zelda. And I loved her too, but I killed her anyway. Do you understand how that feels?"

I didn't.

"And Nílaba wasn't the only one," he continued, sounding much more harsh and cold, like he had only just realized how angry he was. "I killed plenty of other people, people I'd never seen or met before in my life. Don't tell me it wasn't my fault! Because it was! I don't think _anyone _understands that, that if I hadn't been my usual stupid, arrogant self and hadn't volunteered to go as envoy to the Gerudo, if I hadn't overestimated myself and hadn't gone to the Desert Colossus, if I hadn't thought that I could actually take a fucking _Iron Knuckle by myself_, I wouldn't be in this hellhole of a country chipping at ice and my sister would still be alive!"

He slammed his fist into the red ice in frustration without thinking, then cried out in pain. I suddenly came to my senses and jumped up. "Sheik!"

I rushed over to him and turned him around, then grabbed his hand to inspect it. It wasn't bleeding, but it was very badly bruised, maybe broken. "You dumbass!" I said admonishingly. "Why would you do that? You've gone and broken your knuckles or something_—_"

"I guess they're not made of iron," he muttered sardonically.

I glared at him. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself," I said, maybe a little too harshly.

He pushed me away. "No, you don't understand either! I thought you might, having lost so much yourself in the war, but no! you're just like everyone else! You don't really care, and why should you? What does the death of a random Sheikah have to do with the Princess of Hyrule?—Oh, excuse me, _adopted princess.__—_All the great things we've heard about Princess Zelda and the Hero of Time, they're not true, you're just like anybody else—you're just like _everybody_ else!"

"SHEIK!"

He stopped. There was a short pause, then he spat, "_What_?"

Silence once again. But, wait, no—this wasn't silence.

_Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop._

The sound grew steadily louder and more rapid until it was a steady rush, like water through a tiny brook.

"It's the ice," I whispered.

Sheik shook his head, suddenly alert again. "It's not ice anymore."

We exchanged worried glances. To check the noise, I took a few bounding steps around the corner to behold one of the most terrifying things I'd ever seen.

All around, the ice was cracking. Water flooded the cavern, covering the cracking sheets of ice. Icicles were dropping from the ceiling and the frost at our feet was melting and flowing downhill. But where was it all coming from? Why the ice melting so quickly? And why now?

_Creeeeeeak._

Sheik had joined me. We both turned slowly to look at the source of the noise, when_—crack._

The force of the waterfall aboveground actually broke through the roof of Zora's Domain and was gushing over the ice, rejuvenating its underground counterpart and causing it to break. That was when I realized that the ice in fact _wasn't_ melting, it was merely being covered. If the water was flowing faster than the ice was cracking we'd be underwater in less than thirty minutes, max.

That was when I realized how much I didn't want to die.


	4. An Eighth Sage

**SHOOT ME, JUST KILL ME NOW SO I DON'T HAVE TO PUT YOU THROUGH THIS TORTURE AGAIN!~**

**...I'm sorry that I died for however long. -w-' This chapter was really short because I just wanted to post it. I hope the gap between this one and the next one won't be so long next time. *sigh* I'll keep writing!**

**-Nessa**

* * *

**Responses to reviews:**

**xPerfectMistake: Glad you like it! I feel kind of bad for him too xD I'll try and make him happier or something.**

**Aningwel: Haha, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's fun to write them, especially when Link is all clueless in the middle x'D I'm trying to make Zelda a bit bipolar, if you will; sweet and nice with Link but jerkish and argumentative with Sheik.**

* * *

Confused? Not really. Shocked? A little. Terrified? Yes.

Sheik, much better at reacting quickly to new situations, gave me a shove and said urgently, "Help me break the ice!" which my brain processed reluctantly and forced me to regain my nerve (what nerve?). He put a knife in my hand and I automatically turned to the covering of red ice which he'd been trying to break previously, but he immediately began to yell at me.

"_Zelda_!" he shouted, agitated, then pointed at the ice below the rock ledge, which was normally the pool that the waterfall drained into, where the Zoras swam. "_That_ ice!"

I stood stone-still for another split-second, wondering what on earth that would do, when I realized that Sheik was probably a genius. (It pains me to admit it.) I would never have thought to do that! Even if we only made a few cracks in that ice, the weight of the incoming water would eventually cause it to cave in on itself, buying us a bit more time. Why not help it along?

Now, I did see two flaws in Sheik's plan: first, even if we did crack the ice, it probably wouldn't help the process all that much; and second...I have no aim. I cannot hit a bulls-eye to save my life. He clearly expected me to throw the knife _into_ the ice, certainly not _onto_ it...and there was no way I could do something like that.

The Sheikah, on the other hand, were excellent with that sort of thing, and I always got the notion that they didn't really understand their own brilliance, so naturally Sheik didn't understand my hesitancy.

"_What are you doing_?" he hissed. "What—SHIT!"

He jumped back with incredible reflexes as a stalactite (yes, I do know the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite) fell directly in front of us. I fell down, the knife I was holding lost in the flood of water. Oh...

Sheik was standing immediately. "Did you lose it?" he shouted over the roar of the waterfall.

I bit my lip and started to get up too. "Sheik, I'm sorry—"

He turned away. "We don't have time for sorry!" He was right; the water level was rising at an alarming rate. "I've only got one knife left, and it's either the blue ice or the red!"

I glanced at the red ice: another stalactite had fallen on it and taken a good chunk out of the stuff. It wouldn't take us long to get through it now, even without a knife, and with all the tremors going on and rocks falling from the roof of the cavern, the red ice could break on its own. I looked back at Sheik. "Blue," I said firmly. "Buy me some more time, I'll see what else I can do!"

He nodded once, turned around, and set a stance to throw his dagger. Being a "now or never" sort of person, he didn't hesitate (unlike what I would've done in that situation). He threw it right away. His aim was good. His timing was not.

The ice shifted.

It was another tremor, dropping more stalactites and cracking the rock below our feet. What would've been a beautiful shot was suddenly an immense failure, his last knife sliding across the ice and knocking into chunks of stone, making a sound like metal against rock—which it was, though the knives were sharp steel, not blunt iron.

Blunt iron against rock...blunt iron against...ice?

_Bingo._

I raced around the corner and back to the red ice, where I'd dropped the knapsack we'd brought, and immediately began rummaging through it. How had I not thought of that before? _Oh, Goddesses, I didn't forget to bring those, too, did I—? _"YES!"

I pulled the Iron Boots out of the bag triumphantly—they weighed a _ton_—and ran up to the red ice. I smashed the blunt iron tips of the boots against the ice and it shattered like glass. "SHEIK!" I yelled.

I had no idea what he had been doing, but he immediately turned around. "What?" he mouthed.

The waterfall was too loud. A thin layer of water was covering the outcropping of rock we were standing on. I was just in time. I stepped away from the red ice and pointed to the gap I'd made in it with the Iron Boots.

His eyes lit up. I shoved the Boots back into the knapsack and slung it over my back, then jumped through the opening in the red ice, not waiting to see if he was following. I raced up the stairs into the chamber of King Zora XVI and sprinted up to the gate he usually sat at. The tremors were growing worse, the ground literally falling from underneath my feet, but I kept running anyway. Rocks were falling from the roof of the cave and my ears were ringing from the sound of rushing water. The water was up to my calves, now. A loud splash behind me told me that Sheik was following. We kept running.

I think it's ironic that the moment when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel was the moment when something hit the back of my head and I crumpled.

* * *

Ouch.

Too bright! I shut my eyes again. Way too bright. Where was I? Oh, right. Zora's Domain. Zora's Domain? I should be dead. But I wasn't dead. We'd made it out in time. Hadn't we?

I sat up straight and forced my eyes open. "Ow—"

Sheik looked at me. "You're awake," he observed blandly. "You weigh a _ton_, by the way, what do you _eat_, rocks?"

I sneered at him. "Why, were you looking for some to fill your empty head? I'm _taller_ than you are, numbskull." I put a hand to the back of my head. "What hit me?"

He shrugged. "Stalag—"

"_Stalact_ite," I corrected him immediately.

He glared at me. "You think I care?"

"No," I said. "I like to piss you off."

"I've noticed!" He shook his head and looked away. "Can you stand?"

I nodded and stood to prove my point, then surveyed my surroundings. The cavern we had come from that used to be Zora's Domain had completely caved in on itself. We were at Zora's Fountain, the entrance to the Ice Cavern. What were we doing there? Oh, right, trying to find Nabooru and Ruto—

"Sheik," I said suddenly.

"Yes."

"How long has it been?"

"An hour."

"Shit!" I said. "You should've gone ahead to find them, Sheik!"

He shrugged. "I didn't tag along to help solve your problems, Zelda," he reminded me. "I just wanted an explanation."

I stopped. "And now you've got one."

He nodded. "So I'll be off as soon as you are," he agreed promptly.

As much as I hated this guy's guts, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that he wasn't going to come with me to the Ice Cavern. He was useful to have in tough situations. Apparently it must've showed on my face, because Sheik started laughing.

I glared at him. "What!" I demanded.

He covered his face in his hands—he was actually shaking with how hard he was laughing. "I'm _joking_, Zelda, are you honestly that dense? Can't you _tell_ that I was just toying with you? Of course I'm coming, when have you _ever_ known me to say no to adventure?"

I blinked. There was a pause. "I should have seen that coming."

He shook his head. "It's not your fault you didn't see it coming, your eyes are still fuzzy from getting hit on the back of the head and making me drag you out of the rubble!" he teased.

I gaped at him. "You make it sound like almost getting killed isn't nearly as bad as having to strain yourself so much as to pick up somebody four inches taller than you are," I said accusingly, with raised eyebrows.

He threw back his head and laughed some more. Why was he doing that? He was making me angry! I turned my back on him. "Maybe you _should_ leave!"

That shut him up fast, and I smirked. "Can we _go _now?"

"I'm not stopping you!" he muttered, but stood up and gathered our things anyway. "Hey," he said, a bit more loudly, "do you mind if I use that bow? I, ah, don't have any knives left." He gave me a pointed look.

I turned a bit red and shrugged. "If you like. I don't plan on using it myself, I'm terrible with it."

He grabbed the bow and quiver and I picked up the knapsack—why was it so light? "We lost the Iron Boots?"

Sheik looked at me dryly. "Better them than you, right?" he muttered, as though he was regretting his decision.

I scowled. "Yeah. Let's go."

I jumped up the stairs onto the platform where Lord Jabu-Jabu had once sat, then slid down an ice hill (that's a thing now) and nearly fell into the freezing water. I jumped onto the next ice floe and crouched down low, waiting for it to stop shaking. "Sheik!"

"Not drowning!"

"Keep it that way!" I stood up warily and leapt to the next ice floe, trying to land on both my feet at the same time as to not upset it so much, which didn't really work, but hey! give me some credit, I tried. Bronze medal for effort. Not everyone can be a Sheikah.

A few blocks of slippery ice later, something made a flash of metal in the sunlight, seen out of the corner of my eye. I looked over my shoulder but didn't see anything else.

"What?" Sheik demanded. "Keep going!"

"Wait...I think I saw something..."

He began to look around, too, but nothing was there. "You imagined it."

"And how many times has _that_ statement been correct?"

He was exasperated. "There's nothing here, Zelda!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming! Sheesh."

It was about another ten minutes before we both reached the ledge of rock that was the entrance to the Ice Cavern. It took Sheik alone about six minutes, though. Why, you ask? Well...um...

I may or may not have done a faceplant on an ice floe and fallen into the freezing water.

SHUT UP I'M HUMAN OKAY?

I _also_ may or may not have scraped my arm as I was falling off and made a bigger fuss of it than it should've been.

Sheik shook his head as I hauled myself up onto the rock ledge. "You are such a _pansy_!"

I spit water out of my mouth. "I was raised a _princess_, of course I'm a pansy! I'm not meant for all this 'adventure' stuff!" I checked my arm again. No bleeding, just a long scrape. It hurt, though. I hated pain. I hated getting wet like this, too. (I'm a pansy.)

The Sheikah rolled his eyes and turned around, muttering under his breath something that sounded very suspiciously like "damsel in distress."

"Excuse me?" I demanded, appalled. "Can we say 'sexist'?"

"Okay, now you're just contradicting yourself," he said. "Let's go."

* * *

You know, this might surprise you a bit, but the Ice Cavern is _really_ _fucking cold_.

Especially when you're already sopping wet and freezing to begin with. And a pansy. Just a heads up.

It didn't take us long to get through it at all. Because I had neglected to bring any bottles (just kill me now), we ended up playing an extreme game of cold potato with the blue fire in order to melt some red ice that blocked our path. (In my head, it was an epic session of making dramatic catches from thirty feet away, then throwing the blue fire onto the red ice to then poetically charge through the newly opened passage. In reality, it was more like both of us swearing like sailors and attempting not to drop the freezing flames onto any other vaguely important body parts while we slipped and tried to 'run' towards the red ice.) A few Freezors (annoying) and ice Keese (annoying as hell) and falling ice stalactites (why do I even try) later, we arrived at the very end of the Cavern. Ice sparkled like diamonds everywhere you looked, the chamber dark and the existing light thrown around by the shining ice.

It was empty.

Was I surprised? No.

Was I surprised when a huge burst of light dropped someone right in front of us and causing me to fall backwards and trip Sheik in the process?

Yeah, kinda.

"The fuck?!" Sheik muttered, expressing my own emotions quite accurately.

"Wha?" said a familiar voice. "_Goddesses_!"

I stood up as quickly as I could without falling over on the slippery ice again. "_Link_?"

Link had fallen over too. "Crazy old man dropped me out of the sky!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "How did you even get here? What happened?"

"I talked to Rauru for about three seconds," he said, "and then he—he—!"

"Transported you here?" Sheik suggested dryly.

"Exactly!" Link exclaimed, not noticing his sarcasm.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"Nothing useful!" he responded. "Some poetry about sevens and eights and—why are you so wet?"

I blinked and looked down at myself. I was wet? Oh, yeah! I was wet. "...I fell."

I think Sheik almost cried.

"Well, anyway," Link continued, shooting Sheik a funny glance, "he just gave me a bunch of nonsense then told me to leave. Kind of him to put me where you guys are, I guess."

"Yes, but what did he _say_?" I persisted impatiently.

He paused for a second. "He told me about a legend."

"And?"

"Er...something about...ah..."

I frowned. "You didn't actually listen, did you?"

"I did!" Link said immediately. "I did listen! He said something about an eighth sage."

Sheik got up and walked over. "Eighth sage?" he repeated.

"Yeah, a whole lot of nonsense, there's only seven—"

"You have _no_ insight," I interrupted, slightly exasperated. "What did he say about the current seven sages? Darunia being hurt, Saria being sick?"

Link swallowed. "He said...that he had no idea what I was talking about."

Silence.

Sheik was the first to speak. "Was he lying?"

I bit my lip. "I don't think Rauru would lie to us...maybe he really doesn't know."

Link shifted awkwardly and decided to switch directions. "That legend...it said that the leader of the sages would be replaced."

Neither of them looked at me.

"Replaced, as in...?" I began.

"Killed?" Sheik offered.

Link refused to look at either of us. "No, not killed, just replaced."

"By an eighth sage," I said.

"But then there'd only be seven," Sheik pointed out.

"Not if I wasn't killed," I responded.

"I don't think it meant Zelda," Link said suddenly.

We both frowned. "Huh?"

"I think..." He paused. "I think it meant..."

"Yes?" I prompted him.

He was clearly having a hard time voicing his thoughts. "I think it meant...someone else."

There was a really long pause.

"Well, that's anticlimactic," I muttered.

"Who else can be counted as the leader of the sages?" Sheik said. "The true Zelda is dead by now, even if she was destined to be a sage."

I flinched. There it was again, the matter of my not actually being Princess Zelda. There was another long silence.

"Hey, Zellie," Link said after a few moments. "What if it meant the Goddess?"

* * *

**I just feel the need to add this note at the end...when Link was dropped into the chamber at the end of the Ice Cavern, I was really, really tempted to write, "A wild Hero of Time has appeared!" xD**


	5. Alternate Creation

**What, so soon after the other?!**

**Yep, I'm on a roll xD This one is short again because I felt that that was a good place to stop the chapter. *shrug* Sue me~**

**...except don't. ^ ^'**

**-Nessa**

* * *

**Review responses:**

**xPerfectMistake: Haha, you'll get another hint in this chapter! Thanks for reviewing.**

* * *

I blinked. "Which one?" I asked. "I mean...there's three of them."

"No." Link shook his head. "I don't mean the three Goddesses, I mean the _Goddess_."

I frowned. "What?"

Sheik was just as confused. "This _is_ Hylian myth we're talking about, right? Din, Nayru, Farore? Not the Goddess of Sand or something else from the Sheikah or Gerudo?"

Link looked from me to Sheik, and then back to me. "Was...was I the only one...who was told about that?"

We stared at him. Apparently so.

He looked a bit uncertain, suddenly, like maybe we didn't know what he was talking about because he was wrong. "The Alternate Creation. Didn't Rauru ever tell you, Zellie? It's a very, very old legend; ancient, really. One of your—one of...the other Zelda's...descendants...he came up with the Alternate Creation theory. He thought that it wasn't really Din that had created the earth, Nayru that had created the law, Farore that had created life...he thought it'd all been created by one single Goddess, whom he named Hylia."

Wasn't ringing a bell. "Was he in the history books?"

"No," Link said. "But...he was in stories, unproven tales."

"What was his name?" I asked.

"Nobody really knew...but for some reason, they called him Demise."

I glanced at Sheik to see if he showed any sign of knowing the name. His expression was impassive. Link continued.

"Anyway, another story went that Demise was right about there only being a single Goddess, and that stuff happened and he turned dark and blah blah blah Hylia saved everyone from his evil wrath. But that was only a kid's fairy tale."

Sheik's eyes were dark and unreadable when he muttered, "Kid's fairy tales have a whole lot more meaning than plenty of history books."

What was that supposed to mean? I looked back at Link. "Go on."

"Then Hylia became the Goddess that everyone she saved worshipped," he explained. "I mean, she was already a goddess, but that was when she became _the_ Goddess. There was actually a debate about the legend that Demise was actually a god, too, and he was Hylia's brother and she had a really hard time doing away with him—"

I cut him off. "You know, Link, that sounds like an extremely touching ballad of love and sisterly devotion that I am suddenly not very interested in!"

He made a face at me. "Anyway, some of her believers—seven of them, to be exact—created a small..." He hesitated.

"Cult?" I supplied readily.

He cringed a bit. "Do you really consider yourself a _cult_ leader, Zelda?"

I grinned. "You betcha."

Sheik clearly wanted to just kill me right then. At that pleasant thought, I suddenly remembered when he'd come at Lake Hylia; I'd asked if he wanted to kill me. Because that was the logical assumption. That the Sheikah had sent him to take me back to...wherever I'd come from. For, y'know, not being the Princess. I turned serious again. "So those seven people became the Sages?"

"Yeah, thought they weren't all people," he said. "As I'm sure you can guess, there were only four human beings among them. The other three were a Goron, a Zora, and a Kokiri."

I nodded thoughtfully. "Speaking of Zora," Sheik interrupted, "whatever happened to Ttoren?"

Link suddenly looked a bit guilty. "He, er...went home."

Sheik and I exchanged glances. Ttoren hadn't been caught in the collapse of Zora's Domain, had he?

"What's wrong?" Link asked.

I swallowed and shivered, the cold of the Ice Cavern getting to me once again. "Zora's Domain...maybe kinda sorta caved in about two hours ago."

His blue eyes widened—and for a very confusing split-second, I saw fear in them. Not the _Oh-no-my-Zora-friend-might-be-dead _kind of fear...that was certainly there, too, but another kind as well that I didn't recognize. "Ah."

There was a pause. "Well," I said slowly, "why don't we just find a way out of here and th—what was that?"

We fell completely silent. The silence was actually so overwhelming that I felt like it was going to crush me. Until—a very faint sound. Then another. Howling.

"Wolves?" I whispered.

Sheik and Link both shook their heads. "Wolfos. A whole pack."

I blinked. We weren't _completely_ unarmed, which was good; Link had his sword and Sheik had my bow. And I had nothing. Yep. I am just that damn helpful. Please hold your applause.

Sheik took this moment to say, "Well, we lost the Iron Boots, so we can't get out through the lake." Then he added, "There's three of us, anyway. Only two boots."

Link swore. "Zelda," he said urgently, "can you do any fancy schmancy Sage stuff and get us out of here?"

"Um..." I tried to think as quickly as possible. "I don't know, I've honestly never tried."

"Well, try!"

"Okay, okay, I'm tryin'! Just...shut up and lemme think!" I turned around and closed my eyes, attempting to clear my mind and tune out the howling of the Wolfos pack getting closer and louder. I clamped my hands over my ears, which really didn't help that much. _Think, Zelda, think, you're a Sage, you have freaking telepathy on a good day, you can transport a few people out of here, you just need to figure out _how_...!_

I stopped as soon as I realized I didn't even _know_ how. I didn't know how I did half the things I could do, things like tolerating annoying Sheikah and sealing evil lords of evil evilness away in the Sacred Realm...I just _did_ them, despite being a person who often overthinks _everything._ So...I just shouldn't overthink this. Just do it. But—

"ZELDA, MOVE!"

My eyes snapped open and I returned to reality. Wha? What was—"SHIT!" I jumped back with newly-discovered reflexes just as a Wolfos was about to slam into me and maul my face. Instead, the beast rammed into a wall of ice as hard as steel and crumpled with a pitiful noise that sounded vaguely cat-like. "One down," I muttered, and dodged again as a second came towards me, then stepped on its tail—its weak spot—as it slipped. It shrieked in pain and disintegrated into dust. I turned around.

Link was fighting two Wolfos by himself and Sheik had abandoned the bow and was fighting close-up Sheikah style, despite not having any actual weapons anymore. Being a pansy, all I could hope to do without a sword myself was dodge and shout warnings. But no matter how many we (er, _they_) killed, more kept coming. They were practically endless. And I knew that, sooner or later, we'd be beat.

Unless I managed to get us the fucking hell out of there.

But I had no time to think! Just because I told myself I shouldn't _overthink_, that most certainly did not mean I shouldn't think at all. Where would we go? Out. We'd go out. I sidestepped a Wolfos and jumped to Link's left, and a horizontal sweep of his sword took out the Wolfos without even meaning to. We stood back-to-back and hoped, hoped not to die. Crazy situations do crazy things to people, and I was starting to believe that we only had a few more minutes left to live._ Goddesses, Goddesses, don't let us die here, you wouldn't let that happen, merciful Goddesses—_

Sheik cried a warning, and I only had a split second to dodge before an enormous white Wolfos landed on the space that both Link and I had been occupying a second before. The good part was that we were both alive. The bad part was that Link was trapped.

The Wolfos had managed to get a hold of his ankle and was holding him down.

Now or never. I ran across the chamber to Sheik, who was practically surrounded by Wolfos, grabbed his hand, and pulled him back to Link. Slipping and sliding, I managed to get a hold of his hand, too, and without any thought at all, screamed in my head, _LAKE HYLIA!_

I shut my eyes tight and waited.

* * *

My head hurt. My head hurt _way _too much for it to be healthy. I didn't want to even think about how much my head hurt. Why did it hurt? Had a Wolfos—Wolfos?

...

Oh, Goddesses, the Wolfos!

I sat up straight immediately and forced my eyes open, then instantly regretted it. It felt like someone had shattered my skull. "Oww—!" I clamped my hands over my face and started crying. I leaned over and coughed up a mouthful of blood onto the ground. I heard somebody rushing towards me and saying my name. Even with open eyes, the world was completely blended together and painful. I closed them again, a sudden flash of agony causing me to cry harder. Somebody was holding me, trying to hold me still, it wasn't working, it made my head hurt. Painful, painful...I wanted it to go away...I wanted my head to stop hurting..._please...Goddesses...please..._

* * *

_Sage._

_Yes, my Lord._

_All three survived._

_No, my Lord, _only_ three survived._

_I beg your pardon?!_

_Peace, my Lord, peace! The fish beasts will be exterminated in a fortnight at most. Only three have survived because they were meant to._

_...You speak boldly, Sage. _

_My apologies, my Lord._

_And you also speak correctly. And I often speak too soon. Remind me, where are the last two Zoras?_

_One has, for whatever reason, fled to Kokiri Forest. The second is trapped in the Alternate Expansion. As planned._

_Indeed, faithful Sage. Kokiri Forest...what is there that the Zora may want?_

_Saria._

_Ahaha! You have such a fine sense of humor, my loyal servant. Yes, of course, the fish beast must be looking for the Sage of Forest after losing the other. Oh, dear, all this fun is beginning to worry me! You are excused._

_Thank you, my Lord._


	6. A Princess and a Thief

**Hey-o! Did you like the last chapter? I went a bit crazy with the Skyward Sword references xD It was fun! I hope you like this one too, for the time it took for me to actually post it. Please review!** **^_^  
**

**-Nessa**

* * *

**Review responses:**

**xPerfectMistake: Haha, are you surprised at me posting another chapter so quickly or at the actual story? :'3**

* * *

At the moment in time before I lost consciousness, there was not a single coherent thought running through my brain. All I knew was that it hurt and that pain was bad. Anything that held any meaning lost it right then, and it wasn't until a long while later that I realized—remembered—what Link was saying to me. He was saying that it'd be okay, he was saying it'd be alright.

The only lie he's ever told me.

* * *

But suddenly it was gone.

I blinked my eyes open. It was morning. I could see the sun. I was alive. That was good. There was no pain anymore. Anywhere. Had I imagined it? I sat up tentatively and was delighted when the world didn't start doing cartwheels.

"Zelda!" said a relieved voice. "Oh, Goddesses, you're awake! Are you okay?"

I looked up. _Link_. "Hi."

He sat down next to me, looking happier than I'd seen him in a while. He was smiling. I loved his smile. "You worried me so damn much right then!" he said admonishingly, though he couldn't hide the joy in his tone. "Why didn't you tell us you were hurt?"

I blinked, recalling the agony that followed my first attempt at using my Sage powers to transport us back to the Lake. "I wasn't. Not at the Ice Cavern I wasn't. It only happened after we got out of there."

He frowned a bit. "I guess...I guess that was a hard thing to do and it strained you."

_That's the understatement of the_ _century_, I thought. "Where's Sheik?"

"He's...somewhere. Doing whatever Sheikah do." He looked over his shoulder. "He was gone when I woke up, but his stuff is still here. Well, 'his stuff,' as in the scarf he usually has around his face."

"Huh. So it's been a day?"

"Yeah, just about. And you're _sure _you're okay?"

"I'm fine," I promised, though I wasn't really positive. How could I be? "I...I just..."

His eyes narrowed. "You just what?"

There was a short pause, and I decided to change topics. "Why weren't you surprised when we told you about Zora's Domain collapsing?" I asked.

There it was again, that fear in his eyes that confused me so much. "I...had a dream about it," he said softly, not meeting my gaze.

I inhaled sharply. "Like the last one?" I said.

"N-no," he said quickly, "_they_ weren't in it..."

"When was this?" I inquired.

"About a year ago. I'd forgotten about it until now."

"A _year_?" I gaped at him. "Goddesses, Link, there has got to be something _wrong _with you!"

He scowled. "And this is news in what way?" he muttered darkly.

I blinked, surprised at his sudden mood swing. "Sorry."

Confusing me a bit further, he put his arms around me and rested his forehead on my shoulder, breathing deeply. "Don't scare me like that," he mumbled, his voice so low I could barely hear him. "Be _careful_ in the future."

I froze for a very awkward split-second, then gave him a hug. "Aren't I always?" I said jokingly, still not understanding the dramatic change in atmosphere.

He laughed a bit, though his smile was more of a grimace. "No, I think a good word for what you always are is _reckless_." He drew back.

I frowned. "I'm not reckless! I don't even act on instinct, I overthink literally _everything—_"

"Zelda," he said, cutting me off. "The whole 'let's-go-look-for-Ruto-and-Nabooru-when-we-don't- even-know-what's-happening' deal?"

I paused. "Okay, I get that, but that wasn't recklessness, I was curious!"

Link rolled his eyes. "Curiosity killed the adopted princess."

I shoved him. "You be quiet!"

And (rather surprisingly) he was. There was a long silence. Finally, something occurred to me.

"Did you hear from Ttoren?" I asked.

Link paled. "No."

I took a deep breath, then remembered something else. "Link?"

He started slightly. "Y-yes?"

"Why didn't you tell me you knew the Zoras had left the Domain?"

There was a short pause, in which he stared at me like he had seen a ghost, his blue eyes icy cold, completely shocked._  
_

"You would have been more concerned," I explained. "When we told you it'd collapsed you didn't ask anything about if the Zoras had gotten out. How long have you known they weren't actually there?"

"I..." He faltered. "I don't know."

"Yes," I said firmly, "you do. Why aren't you telling me?"

He clenched his right hand over his upper left arm unconsciously, reminding me of his wound. "I'm telling you everything!" he said unconvincingly, staring at the ground.

I put hand on his cut cheek, making him jump about a mile and glance at me. All the color had drained from his face. "Link," I said. "Look at me." He didn't meet my gaze, just stared at my nose. I'd just have to force him. "Link, what color are my eyes?"

"Gray," he said immediately.

"Describe them, please."

He hesitated. "Gray, with black around them..." He automatically made the mistake of looking directly at me, and I knew that once we locked eyes he wouldn't break it, because it'd happened before. This time was no exception.

"Link," I said quietly, "I want you to tell me something."

He swallowed but didn't say anything in reply.

"What happened in your dream of Twinrova?"

His answer did not come readily. "I d-don't know."

"Yes," I persisted gently, "you do. What did they tell you about Zora's Domain?"

"Nothing," he said.

"I don't believe you."

"I don't believe me either."

This statement came at me so quickly I wasn't sure that I'd actually heard him correctly. "What do you mean?" I asked.

He finally mustered up the strength to break eye contact. "If Twinrova can get into my head," he muttered, his voice low, "then you shouldn't trust me anymore, Zelda."

I was appalled. "How couldn't I trust you?" I said. "I've known you for years! You'd never do anything they'd tell you."

"You don't know that."

I thought about what he'd said for a second. "That night," I began slowly, "you told me that Twinrova wasn't in your head, but that you were in theirs."

"That's right," he confirmed.

"Explain?"

"I can't."

I cocked my head slightly and stared at him intently. After a long pause, I said, "Okay."

He stood up and turned away. "I'm going for a ride," he said a bit stiffly. He pulled out his ocarina, called Epona, and mounted her bareback, then headed towards Hyrule Field at a light canter.

I swear I will never understand him.

* * *

"We found her in front of the waterfall," said the Zora. "We have no idea where she's from or who her parents are. She's the same age as little Ttoren."

Impa watched the little girl, who was only about two, intently. How was it a coincidence that two human children had been entrusted anonymously to two of the most dominant species of Hyrule within years of each other, each showing elements of belong to that species? The Great Deku was raising the young boy as a Kokiri, while the Zoras were caring for the little girl as one of their own.

"And what news of the Princess?" the Zora asked conversationally. "Has she...ah...?"

"Shown any signs?" Impa finished. "No, she hasn't. The first in centuries who doesn't have the sight."

The sight. That was the strangest part about those two orphans.

Why did they have the Golden Aura around them when even the Princess of Hyrule didn't?

"Is there anything else I can help you with, ma'am?" said the Zora, snapping Impa out of her thoughts.

"Yes, one more thing," she said. "What is she called?"

"Miri," said the Zora. "Her name is Miri."

Impa sighed and turned away. _Not anymore, it isn't._

* * *

"Princess!" Impa called.

"Coming, Impa!" came a voice from down the corridor, and a girl of about eight rushed into the room. "Is it bedtime already?"

Impa smiled. "I'm afraid so, Princess," she said. "We can't have you wandering around in the castle in your nightclothes."

"Oh, please Impa!" pleaded the girl. "Couldn't I just stay up for a few more minutes?"

"No, most certainly not," said her caretaker. "Calm down and I'll tell you a story."

"Okay," said the girl. She jumped into her bed but certainly didn't calm down, sitting up straight and not even bothering to pull the covers up.

Impa's expression was impassive but her eyes twinkled with amusement. "Lay down," she prompted.

After a bit of complaining, the girl was finally lying down and calm. "Now," said Impa, "there was once a little girl who lived with the Zoras, a race of fish beasts."

"That was me, wasn't it?" said the girl.

"Yes, it was," said Impa, knowing that the Princess didn't completely understand the story no matter how many times it was told. She thought it was just that—a story made up for her amusement. What she never realized what that her caretaker was telling her this story so that one day she could be prepared. "This little girl had a special quality about her, something that made her different. It was called the Golden Aura." She paused for emphasis. "Now, far away, across the river and over Hyrule Field, a princess of the same age lived in a magnificent palace with servants and pretty gowns to wear. Although the princess was rich and the girl raised by Zoras was poor, the commoner had something the princess didn't: she had the Golden Aura.

"One day, the Princess of Hyrule mysteriously disappeared. It was said that she was stolen right from her bed by a shadow creature, a demon of the night, as a punishment to the King of Hyrule. But why would the King need to be punished? Well, it was because he had made a poor decision. He had decided to trust a man that hailed from the Gerudo, a man called Ganondorf." She always added this part of the story so that the little girl would hear the name Ganondorf in her future and immediately assume the man was evil. That was what Impa wanted. "Ganondorf was a corrupt man who wanted nothing but to destroy Hyrule and take over in his own power. But somebody needed to stop him. The King of Hyrule couldn't do it—he had no power against Ganondorf's black magic. But there were a few people who did. They were called the Sages.

"There were six Sages, one of each element: Light, Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, and Spirit. And this little girl, this orphan raised by Zoras, was destined to be leader of them all, because she possessed the Golden Aura."

"What about the boy?" the Princess prompted.

Impa nodded. "In another part of Hyrule, called Kokiri Forest, a young boy a year older than the little girl was being raised by a spirit called the Great Deku Tree, a wonderful deity that ruled over the Kokiri in a just and peaceful manner. This boy also had the Golden Aura, but he was not destined to be a Sage; instead, he was meant to become somebody known as the Hero of Time, the savior of Hyrule and the one who would bring about the end of Ganondorf. The Hero of Time had a magical flute called the Ocarina of Time, and the legendary Blade of Evil's Bane, known as the Master Sword. These two relics allowed him to control the flow of time and disrupt Ganondorf's corrupt intentions, and together, he, the girl, and the Sages were fated to become the saviors of Hyrule and protectors of the sacred Triforce." She took a breath. "That's all for tonight, Princess, I'm afraid you must go to sleep now."

The Princess nodded, as she was a bit tired, and pulled her covers up. "Thank you for the story, Impa," she said politely. "Good night."

Impa stood up, then walked to the door and bowed respectfully. "Good night, Princess."

_Sweet dreams, Miri._


	7. Unanswerable Questions

**So, another super-short chapter. *sigh* I just wanted to post it, that's why. It's also relatively difficult for me to give you guys enough ****_interesting_**** things to read in a 3,000+ word chapter, especially with a lot of paragraphs (like in this chapter), which give more words but technically shorter length. If I always did that it'd probably take me months to post with my procrastination ^o^' I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, though. Please review! :3**

**-Nessa**

* * *

I am a lonely person.

You know how they say "it's lonely at the top"? I can relate to that. Being raised a princess, I never had a chance to really make friends. I really like people's company, but it's not that I can't live without it for a little while, it's just...well...I tend to scare myself when I'm left alone to my thoughts.

You'd think because of this I'd have a lot of nightmares, but honestly, I hardly ever dream. They're more like day-mares or something, times when I'm lost in my world of thoughts and end up freaking myself out with things considered totally normal. People of royalty are taught to be paranoid, to sleep with one eye open, and having been captured by Ganondorf and dealt with the destruction of Hyrule in my short lifetime, I take those two rules-of-thumb rather seriously. And sitting alone in the canyon around Lake Hylia, with everything completely normal and regular—my paranoia was kicking in.

I could feel adrenaline running through my veins, my breathing quick and shallow and my eyes darting to anything that moved. The fact that nothing was out of place or out of the ordinary was what scared me. Something should be wrong. That was how life worked. With nobody there to distract me I noticed every little detail of everything around me, like my brain was on overdrive.

I stood up and walked to the bridge, attempting to release my tension with a bit of movement. It helped a little, but my heart was still beating too quickly for me to calm down and my mind was running over everything that had happened in the last few days: Link's dream, Ruto and Nabooru, the Ice Cavern, the Wolfos, the pain in my head after transporting the three of us back to Lake Hylia, and the newest mystery of Link already knowing that Zora's Domain would collapse and that the Zoras were gone—by means of more dreams. Why were his dreams so important all of a sudden? And Sheik! The hell was Sheik doing here, if he didn't want to kill me? He couldn't have _only_ wanted that short explanation of why I'd impersonated him. He was after something.

I was so nervous that I had walked all the way back to the opposite side of the canyon before I realized what I was doing. I glanced at the long, wide scarf that was lying on the ground next to Link's equipment. Why had Sheik even left that there? He hardly ever took it off. Probably slept with it on too.

I wished some of the Zoras would come out so I could talk with them, but then remembered they were gone. We had no proof that Ttoren was alive, either. Ruto and Nabooru were off to who-knew-where at this point, and Sheik was off galavanting. Well, probably not galavanting, he was too stiff to go smell the roses and frolic in the meadow, but...close enough. Even Dr. Mizumi would be good company at this point, as long as he was just _there_ and didn't start doing...whatever that guy does all day. I honestly don't want to know. Definitely something shifty. I mean, come on, who tries to give a horse a radioactive carrot? What did Epona ever do to deserve that? Hell, why did he even have one? I really don't want to know!

Call me crazy, but I'm a little scared of Dr. Mizumi.

("A little scared" = terrified.)

...

Moving on!

So, as I'm sure you can tell at this point, I slowly drive myself relatively insane when I'm alone for too long, and thus start doing ridiculous things like wishing Dr. Mizumi was actually out and about. After another good ten minutes of anxious pacing, I forced myself to sit down, but my muscles were still tense and in a couple minutes, my jaw was sore from being clenched so tightly. I reached behind me to pull a few leaves off a mint plant, then pressed one to my tongue and promptly choked when a voice directly next to me said, "You know, it's peppermint that helps calm you down, not normal mint."

I jumped a few miles and spit out the leaf. Sheik smiled smugly. He seemed a lot more complete without the scarf around his face, for some reason. His reddish eyes seemed less harsh and brutal without the white cloth, softened by his tan skin and yellow hair. "You never did make a good Sheikah," he observed, his placid indifference making me mad. "I was right next to you and you didn't even notice."

I coughed. "That may be true," I said, "but you make an _excellent_ Sheikah, and hardly _anyone_ would notice if you were right next to them like that."

He shrugged. "I am pretty great."

I resisted the urge to smack him. "Where were you?"

"Looking for Ttoren."

Suddenly my adrenaline spiked again. "Is he alive?" I spluttered.

Sheik swallowed. "I didn't find him."

And then the sky fell down on my head.

I felt my eyes grow hot with tears. "You mean...?"

"No," he said firmly. "I didn't find him dead, I didn't find him at all. He is probably somewhere else, completely safe. I only looked around the Domain anyway."

I nodded and attempted to blink my eyes dry. "Yeah," I said. "He's fine, he probably wasn't even there by the time it collapsed since he went the long way on foot."

Sheik seized this bit of salvation eagerly. "Probably," he said. "Anyway, where'd Link go?"

I was happy at the change of topic, though I couldn't push the thought of one of my best friends being possibly dead from my mind. "Out riding Epona."

"Oh." He shifted uncomfortably and didn't say anything else.

Even though we were both sitting very awkwardly across from each and were both silent for a long time, I felt much better now that someone else was here. I just wished that he would talk to me. I didn't want to think about Ttoren. So finally I decided that if he wouldn't talk to me, I'd talk to him. Maybe he'd make death threats again and distract me, who knew.

"Are you afraid of anything, Sheik?" I asked.

He looked at me. If he was surprised, it didn't show in his face. "Yes," he said. "I'm human, aren't I?"

I shrugged. "Just wondering..."

He bit his lip. "I'm afraid of lots of things," he said. "Like...what we talked about at Zora's Domain. Couldn't you tell?"

"I guess..." I glanced away. "If I'm afraid of stuff, shouldn't I have nightmares about it?"

He frowned. "Not necessarily. What are you on about, Zelda?"

I inhaled slowly, my heart suddenly racing again. "I..." I swallowed. Sheik was the wrong person to talk to this about. "Nothing."

He dropped it. "Okay."

I stood up and started pacing again.

* * *

Link returned an hour later, having ridden around Hyrule Field once and quickly visited the newly-restored marketplace in Hyrule Castle Town. Sheik and I both were highly relieved, because his return meant a cease of the awkward tension between us while we waited. We basically did nothing for the rest of the day. Nothing. Just plain old nothing.

Well, I personally had an inevitable mental freak-out, but, y'know, that was just me.

The day passed quickly. Link and Sheik talked like they'd known each other their entire lives. I sat and moped. Yay, anti-socialism! I am such an angsty teenager...

By the time nightfall came, I was practically asleep already. The only thing keeping me awake was the thoughts of Ttoren and Zora's Domain dwelling in the back of my mind. More like the front of my mind, actually. Around eight o'clock, Link sat down next to me, looking a bit concerned. "You look upset."

"I am upset," I said monotonously. "I am very upset."

He put an arm around me. "Are you...okay?"

_Okay_. Such a simple word held so much meaning. I glanced over my shoulder and Sheik, who was sitting at the edge of the water doing nothing, then looked back at Link. "Are nightmares scary?"

He seemed surprised. "What? I mean, yeah, they're scary, but...they're not real. Haven't you ever had a nightmare, Zellie?"

"Not that I remember," I said.

"Why are you asking?"

I put my head on his shoulder. "Sheik told you where he'd gone?"

"Yes...?"

There was a very long pause. Finally, I decided to tell him.

"What if I dream about Ttoren?"

Link seemed a bit saddened by this. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. "Then you'll wake up in the morning and it'll all be okay."

There was that word again. _Okay._

I don't like lies very much.


	8. While the World Burns

**Hey guys! This one's relatively long, for the time it took me to actually post it .' Nearly 3,400 words, not including this part. Woo-hoo! **

**But really. I need to work on my post consistency. *sigh***

**-Nessa**

* * *

"Wake."

I gasped audibly and sat up straight, sleep torn from my darkness-blinded eyes by a tight grip around my wrists. What was going on?

I nearly shouted in surprise when I found Link staring at me from a few inches away, his expression impassive and his blue eyes bright in the moonless, cloudy night. He was staring straight past me like I wasn't even there. Something was wrong. Something was _very _wrong.

"You can't save them." His voice was completely normal, even on the verge of casual.

I caught my breath. "What?"

"You can't save them," he repeated. His eyes found mine, and he stopped staring at empty space. "Your people. They will die. They have no hope."

My brain frantically searched for an explanation to this terrifying behavior. "What are you saying, Link?"

His left hand released my right wrist and reached up to touch my face fondly. A few beads of something warm and thick dripped down onto my neck—blood. His, more specifically, from his sword arm. He laughed quietly. "Foolish child," he murmured, lowering his eyes and leaning in very slightly. "You don't understand these words only because they come from this puppet here. A fine young man, he once was...but his strength is quickly deteriorating. And you, little princess, are not prepared to take on the challenges ahead...no, you will not save them, not on your life. You are too selfish. You shall stand in the ruins of a place that no longer breathes and stare at the dying spirits of your people while the world burns before your very eyes in flames of vengeance and terror. They shall call out to you, and you will not help them. Tell me, daughter of Zora, where your heart truly lies: with your people, or with your equals?"

"My people _are_ my equals," I whispered. My hands were shaking.

He smiled mirthlessly, the look in his eyes one of a man about to do something crazy, his clammy, ice-cold hand pressed against my cheek. He leaned in so close our noses nearly touched. "Wrong answer, Sage."

Then the light in his eyes died and his image disintegrated and was blown away by the wind.

And in that moment, I was so scared, confused, and hysterical that I just went back to sleep.

* * *

_You were not supposed to tell her that much, witch._

_Our apologies, Madam Sage._

_Our Lord will not be happy._

_We didn't tell her anything important, Madam Sage, no indeed, we kept ourselves quite concealed, we used the boy as a puppet, Madam Sage, we spoke in riddles._

_But that is specifically why I am angry! You shouldn't have used the boy, now she knows exactly who spoke with her. And the 'daughter of Zora' bit! She is only supposed to know that she wasn't born a princess, but now you've gone and sparked her curiosity, no doubt! Can I trust you two with _anything_?_

_O-of course you c-can, M-madam Sage! Our deepest apologies, we'll d-do better next t-time for sure!_

_I do not believe you. I should kill you now, but I suppose our Lord would not be happy with that, either. Begone, witch. I have no need for you here. Tell what I have told you to your sister._

_Yes, Madam Sage, I'll be g-going now._

_Get out!_

* * *

It was dawn when I woke. I sat up, immediately awake, and looked to my right. Link was lying there, sleeping peacefully. I glanced a way's away to where Sheik slept. He, too, was still asleep. Had I imagined what had happened? It had seemed so real...

I stood quietly and rummaged around in my knapsack for a dress—say what you will, but I just feel more comfortable in skirts. I'm a princess, remember? I pulled out a pretty ocean-blue one that reached a bit above my knees, then tied my hair in three braids behind my back, like usual, and put on white stockings and brown leather boots. Doing this distracted me from my paranoia at least temporarily and I hoped the soft noises would wake Link up. Maybe I could ask him if he remembered anything.

However, it was Sheik who awoke first, predictably. He purposely made a bit of noise so I'd notice him, which was nice. He sat down next to me at the edge of the lake.

"I'm going to go looking for Ttoren again," he said in a half-whisper.

I suddenly felt a brick drop down into my gut. I'd completely forgotten. How could I have forgotten? "I want to come."

"We'd best wait for Link, too. He isn't going to want to be left out again."

I nodded. "Sheik," I began slowly, "did you, by any chance...hear something weird in the night?"

He frowned. "No. Why?"

I swallowed and shook my head. "No reason. I just...nothing."

I could tell he was curious but he didn't ask any more questions. "Yesterday I checked around outside of the Domain," he said, "but today I want to go inside, if we can find a way."

"Where there's a will, there's a way," I muttered bitterly. "D'you think he could've survived that, if he really did get caught?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea," he admitted, which surprised me a bit. Sheik hardly ever said stuff like that. "If his skull's as thick as yours, there's no doubt about it."

I made a face at him and stood to begin tacking up Epona. The brown mare was a bit jumpy for whatever reason, but she stood relatively still as I put on her saddle and bridle. Probably still freaked out by Dr. Mizumi. Poor thing. I ran my fingers through her knotted mane to take out some of the tangles, but she whinnied in protest and shook her head. I withdrew my hand.

Sheik and I both turned at the sound of Link's awakening **(SEE WHAT I DID THERE) **behind us. "Hello," he said groggily. "Why's Epona freaking out?"

"I was wondering the same thing," I told him. "She's a bit shaken up."

Link stood and my eyes were drawn to his left arm_—_it was still bound tightly and cleanly in white cloth, no blood showing through. I touched the spot on my neck unconsciously where his blood had fallen last night. It was just skin, no dried blood there. Maybe it really had been a dream. Or maybe I was going nuts, who's to say. "What are you staring at, Zellie?"

I started. "Hm? Oh, nothing, just...nothing."

"She said the same thing to me ten minutes ago," Sheik grumbled.

Had I? I shrugged. "I'm just...worried. About...stuff."

Link nodded. I noticed he looked slightly uncomfortable. "We all are," he said. "Even Epona, as it seems."

"I was going to go check out the inside of Zora's Domain, if we can," said Sheik. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, of course," he responded. "Zelda, do we have anything to eat?"

I suddenly realized how hungry I was; I hadn't eaten anything in at least a day. "I don't think so, but I can go to the ranch and get something quickly, if you want."

"Okay, Sheik and I will—actually, we're coming with you," Link said abruptly. "We need horses too."

Sheik's expression tightened. "And because of that, all of us can't go," he said. "You and Zelda go."

I looked at him and remembered how uncomfortable he'd been on Epona before. "Alright then. You wait at the entrance to the Domain...or what's left of it...and we'll be there in, maybe, and hour or so. Now, let's _go_, all this waiting is getting on my nerves!"

"Okay, okay, we're going!" said Link. He turned and took a single step towards Epona, who shook her mane and moved backwards nervously. Link frowned. "What's wrong, Epona?" He put his hand out tentatively, trying to touch her—

And she reared with a loud, panicked neigh and nearly hit him in the skull with her hooves.

He shouted in alarm and fell backwards into the sand, and Epona took off at a canter for a few meters before stopping at the water's edge, the whites of her dark brown eyes visible. I knew better than to try and approach her but I was in so much shock that I didn't know _what_ to do. Why was she so afraid? She loved Link, just as much as she loved Malon! I'd never seen such a thing as this happen before with her, except with Ingo.

But...horses and animals could sense things that humans couldn't, wasn't that right? Like they could smell fear, almost. Maybe Link was afraid? But of what?

Did it have to do with the strange dream I'd had last night?

After a split-second I snapped out of my shock and rushed to Link. "Oh, goddesses, she didn't hit you, right, you don't have a fractured cranium or anything like that—"

"Relax," he interrupted, "I'm fine. Just...surprised. I've never known her to do anything like that. Something must've really spooked her." I offered him my hand, and he pulled himself to his feet, frowning. "I just wonder what made her do that..."

I turned to look at Sheik. He'd completely blanched and seemed quite shaken. Despite all the confusion in my brain, a little portion of me at the back of my head was thinking, _Aww, he's afraid of horses, how cute! Something else to tease him with!_

When I turned back, Link was very, very slowly approaching Epona, who had calmed down very much in the past minute or so. She still wouldn't let him touch her but she was definitely not trying to get away. I could very faintly hear him humming the Ocarina song he used to call her—or in a case like this, to calm her down. He had also used that song to get her to like him when he was younger. Sheik and I stared in silence for a good three minutes before Epona let him touch her muzzle.

I walked forwards slowly, still staying a good two meters away from them. "She's...she's okay now?" I confirmed.

"Yeah," he said, "she...I really don't know what scared her, but she's better now. I think it was me for some reason."

I swallowed. I thought it was him, too. I took a step closer. "Can I...?"

He nodded. "Go ahead."

I reached my hand out and placed it gently on Epona's strong neck. She eyed me strangely but didn't move. "Link," I said very quietly.

He blinked in recognition but didn't look at me. He understood I didn't want Sheik to hear whatever I was about to say.

"I need to tell you something. When we get to the ranch."

He gave a very small, slow nod, then turned around. "She's fine now," he called.

"That's...good," said Sheik, coming as close as he dared. "We'd best be going now."

Link very carefully mounted Epona; she didn't even move. He helped me up slowly (I decided to ride sidesaddle) and we waved a quick goodbye to Sheik, who, for some reason, watched us leave before turning towards the lake and heading in the wrong direction. What was he doing?

It took us fifteen minutes or so to get to the ranch at a canter from Lake Hylia, but they seemed like a very short fifteen minutes to me. There was so much on my mind that Link actually had to say my name thrice to get me to pay attention to him.

"_Zelda_!"

I started and nearly fell off Epona (_and_ nearly took him down with me, seeing as I had my arms around his waist). "What? What?"

"I've been saying your name!" he said. "What's up?"

"Er," I said intelligently. "What do you mean?"

He looked over his shoulder a bit, frowning. "You wanted to ask me something."

Oh. That. I bit my lip. "Um, yeah...last night, did you, uh, hear anything strange?"

"No, not that I remember," he said. "I had a funny dream though."

I felt my heartbeat quicken. "What was it about?"

He reddened slightly, embarrassed. "I was attacking a cuckoo, and then I think it tried to talk to me or something? I dunno."

I felt a strange urge to laugh and then cry from relief. "Um, yeah, that's not really what I meant..."

"Why? Did _you_ hear something strange in the night?"

"Well, no," I admitted, "but I..._I_ had the weirder dream of the two of us, and I hardly ever dream." I stopped, unsure whether or not I should tell him. "But it was just a dream, of course."

Was it, though? If Link really had been possessed by Twinrova for a second time, it would probably explain Epona's crazy behavior...and why shouldn't they erase it from his memory? Maybe it really had happened.

"Tell me," he said.

I rested my head in between his shoulder blades. "I don't want to," I mumbled. "It doesn't make sense."

"Talking cuckoos don't make sense," he said. "Please tell me, Zelda."

I opened my mouth, about to start explaining, then shut it. No. I couldn't tell him. I hadn't even thought this through. How might he react? Something bad could happen. There was a long silence.

"Okay," he acquiesced, understanding I'd changed my mind. "I'm not going to force you."

I shut my eyes. "Thanks."

There was another pause. "Was it scary?" he asked.

This surprised me a little bit. I hadn't really thought about it. Had that so-called "dream" actually frightened me? "Yes," I decided eventually, then said suddenly, "You were in it."

I felt him stiffen against my arms. "Was I the scary part?"

There was perhaps an even longer pause. "Yes."

When he looked over his shoulder at me again, he looked genuinely concerned, and, honestly, a bit hurt. "You think I'm _scary_, Zelda?"

I shook my head. "No! How could I love you if I was afraid of you?"

He didn't answer. We rode on in silence.

* * *

When we arrived at Lon Lon Ranch, at first I didn't think anybody was there. It was completely quiet as we dismounted, no sign of Talon anywhere, but as we journeyed in a bit further we saw Malon with the horses in the corral. She noticed us quickly, and turned and waved with a bright smile. Link waved back but I didn't have the heart. Epona whinnied and tossed her mane, but in a friendly way this time—not out of fear.

Malon was clearly excited at the sight of her favorite horse. She actually greeted Epona before she greeted us. "Hii!" she said, hugging the mare's neck. "Hi, sweetie, I've missed you!"

Link seemed amused. "Looks like she missed you too," he said.

Malon gave him a big smile. "Hi, Link," she said. "I haven't seen you in so long. Why are you here?"

"We were actually in need of some food," he admitted. "Also, Epona was acting up a little bit this morning, we were wondering if you might help us explain that."

She frowned. "Really? Normally she's very well-behaved, isn't she?" She turned back to the horse. "She does seem a bit nervous..."

"She almost kicked Link," I interjected quietly.

Malon looked at me with wide eyes. "_Really_?" she gasped, visually upset. "Oh, Epona, you could've hurt them!"

"She didn't mean any harm," Link assured her quickly. "She was spooked by something. I think it was me."

She frowned. "Did you put any funny-smelling stuff on? Sometimes that's it."

"No," he said, "I don't think so."

She thought for a minute, then shrugged. "Well, she's okay now. If she does it again, please let me know. And you were saying you needed something to eat?"

"Yeah," he said, pulling out a pouch of rupees. "Here, I've brought some money for it—"

"No," she said firmly, handing him back the rupees, "you will _not_ pay for anything here. You freed us from Ingo, we're still repaying that debt." Then she turned to me and curtsied slightly. "Princess Zelda, Your Highness, I apologize for not addressing you sooner."

I shook my head. "It's fine, Malon," I assured her. "Stop bowing and don't call me that. I'm human."

"If you say so," she said cheerily. "Is that all, just food?"

"Um, no," said Link. "We were actually looking to see if we could borrow two—"

"One," I interrupted. "Sheik hates riding."

He frowned. "But—"

"He'll find a way," I said. "He always does."

He was clearly skeptical but went with it anyway. "I guess just one horse then. It'd probably only be for a few days, though I can't make any promises."

"Of course!" said Malon. "And I assume that'll be for Princess Zelda? Link, you go on inside and find my father, he'll get you some food. Please come with me, Your Highness." She led me into the corral.

"You're used to riding on Epona, right?" she said, although it wasn't really a question. "Her brother's a lot like her, you can borrow him. His name is Takumi." She led me towards a tall, very dark brown stallion, almost black, with white stockings and a white blaze down his muzzle.

"They look nothing alike!" I marveled. Was this really Epona's brother? Epona was a much lighter bay, with a white mane and tail.

Malon nodded. "They had different fathers."

"Oh," I said. I reached out and patted Takumi's muzzle. He snorted and nosed at my hand, looking for anything edible. I smiled. He really was just like Epona, at least in that sense.

"He's strong and tall," Malon said, "but he's actually really wimpy sometimes. He's afraid of frogs."

I laughed a little, unsure if she was joking or not. "How did you find that out?"

She shrugged. "I rode him down to Lake Hylia and he freaked out when the Lake Scientist came out of his house and showed us a dead frog."

Oh, of course. "Are you sure it's not Dr. Mizumi he's afraid of? 'Cuz that guy is pretty weird. Epona doesn't like him either."

"That might be it too," she agreed evenly. "Do you want to ride him a little? Here, I'll get you his tack."

"No, it's okay," I said, but she was already handing me his saddle to hold while she put the two blankets on his back, then grabbed the heavy leather saddle from me and slipped the reigns over his head before strapping the girdle in place. She was fast! Guess it comes from living on a horse ranch your whole life.

"There!" she said. "All done. And look, here comes Link. Hi Link!"

He had his hands full with two canvas saddle bags full of food and a large bottle of Lon Lon milk. "I don't think we could eat all this if we tried," he grumbled, shaking his head.

"I'm sure you'll need it," Malon said with a smile, strapping a bag to each of the horses' saddles. "You guys are good to go! This is Takumi, by the way. He's Epona's little brother. They're three years apart."

"Oh, really?" said Link. "That's interesting." He mounted Epona, and I took that as my signal to mount Takumi, who seemed very well-behaved. "We'd best be off, Malon. Thanks again for everything."

"Anytime!" she said cheerfully. "Have a safe trip!"

I waved, then kicked Takumi into a smooth canter behind Epona as we rode out of the ranch and back into Hyrule Field.

The ruins of Zora's Domain were waiting.


	9. In Which the Plot Thickens

**Guys imma try something new. If you hate it don't kill me. Much appreciated. Sorry that this one's not too long.**

**Please please review! :3**

**-Nessa**

* * *

I checked the sun for the fifth time in as many minutes. They were late! Why were they taking so damn long?

Well, no, we hadn't actually agreed on a _time_ to meet, so technically they could've taken as long as their lazy asses desired, but why should they? One of their best friends was missing. _I'd_ personally be pretty upset if something like that ever happened to me.

Oh wait!

It had.

I groaned and sat down, leaning against a large chunk of rubble rock. I had too much on my mind to think straight; the collapse of the Domain, for one thing, along with Zelda asking me all those weird questions (she clearly wasn't telling us something) and Impa's illness forever making me worry about her. And then the horse! Sweet Goddesses, Epona had scared the living daylights out of me that morning, and now they were bringing back _another_? I was so terrified of what could happen I didn't want to think about it. Why would they even need another horse? They couldn't bring one of the beasts inside a collapsed rock cavern!

I put my head in my hands and did what I always did when I was upset—I pretended I was still an Iron Knuckle. Iron Knuckles don't have feelings or opinions or thoughts at all, so reliving what it was like when I was one was strangely soothing. Of course, if I was _really_ not having a good day, it made me cry, but normally it just calmed me down, pretending like nothing actually mattered. I snorted. I am such a coward.

I stood up again and started pacing. They still hadn't showed up. If they had _horses_ shouldn't it take them _less_ time? I kicked a rock and nearly fell over trying to hop around on one foot. Maybe I was overreacting. I never did have a very good sense of time. Comes from spending seven years as a brainless, emotionless, dispassionate hunk of metal. I could tell that Link was pretty on-top of things, but it was Zelda that bothered me. The girl couldn't make a split-second decision if her life depended on it, as we had found out in the Ice Cavern.

I looked ahead of me, through piles of rock, to where Zelda and I had entered the Domain yesterday. I frowned. Had it been yesterday? No, two days. Two days at least. Wasn't that right? Whichever. It didn't matter. The waterfall had, for some unexplainable reason, stopped flowing normally and had diminished to a tiny trickle, dripping over the rocks that now blocked the way in. I knew that we could get in; I'd already made my observations, and if we moved those rocks I could tell that nothing else would collapse. However, I was not strong enough to move the largest of them—I'd need Link's help for that. While Zelda probably just sat there being useless. Was she going to be good for _anything_? I mean, I understood she was the leader of the Sages and she was probably going to eventually be powerful than I ever would be, but why couldn't that happen _now_, when we really needed it? It would make life so much easier. So much easier...

I sat down again and closed my eyes. That girl confused me like nothing else. For one, she was the Princess without actually being the Princess. How did that even work? Impa said that one day I'd figure it out, but I wasn't sure I would. Most of the senior Sheikah knew where she'd really come from, but being gone for seven years tends to do things to your reputation, and I'd never been told her true origins or name, only that she wasn't who they said she was. Name. It was really weird, realizing that someone you'd known for years wasn't actually called what you thought they were called. It was worse that I didn't know what she was supposed to be called. Something in the back of my head told me that I _did_ know and just couldn't remember, but that really didn't help, seeing as you can't remember what you can't remember. Probably had something to do with Twinrova wiping my memory temporarily when they turned me into an Iron Knuckle. I tried to recall what they'd stolen from me all the time, but I just couldn't.

To give you one terrifying example, I couldn't remember my parents' names until Impa told me, and even then, I thought I'd never heard those names in my life. I still don't. It just doesn't make sense. It's like being told about some distant relative you've never met but are somehow still connected to. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.

But it's my life now, isn't it.

I frowned and bit my lip. Before I had told Zelda about Nílaba and my being turned into an Iron Knuckle inside the Domain, she had explained why she'd chosen me to impersonate for seven years. It was a simple answer that made sense. I wasn't bothered by it. But she had said that she'd met me before impersonating me. When had we met? Was that something else Twinrova had taken from my memory, or did it have something to do with..._her_? And what of the weird questions she'd been asking me over the past few days? "Alternate creation" and an eighth sage? And _then_ some! I was getting really annoyed.

I was about to stand up for a third time when I heard heavy footsteps in the grass and I froze. Those definitely weren't horses, whatever was coming was using its own two feet. I looked over my shoulder very slowly and was shocked to see a Goron stumbling up the slope towards me, looking very grumpy and out-of-his-element.

"Darunia!" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet and pulling my scarf away from my eyes so he'd recognize me. "What are you doing here?"

He huffed. "Wot 'm oi doin' 'ere?" he repeated hotly. "Oi dunno, t'be honest, whoi doncha ask the bloomin' owl 'o told me teh come 'ere? Oi hate water, this place is full of it!"

I resisted the urge to laugh. "What owl?" I asked. "Kaepora Gaebora?"

"Dunno 'is name," said the Goron. "Now wot in Din's lovely name 'appened teh this place? Where'd oll them Zoras go? It's a wreck, oi tell yeh, a damned wreck!"

"We don't know either," I said quickly. "I don't know why you're here, but since you've come, do you think you could help me move some rocks?"

Darunia chuckled. "Tha's moi business, boy," he said, "rocks. Damned things have gotten so temperamental as of late! D'you 'ear 'bout that explosion up in Dodongo's Cavern?"

"Yeah, I heard you were _in_ it."

He nodded. "Tha's roit, m'boy, quoit roit, but oi'm oll better now, doncha be worryin' yerself. Now, where's this rock yeh want moved?"

I led him up the slope, showing him the enormous buildup of rocks that created a stone flooring where the waterfall had once poured, connecting the entrance to the Domain with the outside. "It's safe," I assured him, "the rocks go all the way down."

"D'you think oi couldn't tell that?" he muttered gruffly. "This one 'ere?" He pointed at the largest boulder in front of the waterfall cave.

I nodded. "I, uh, can't get it to move."

He stepped with surprising grace for his size across the rocks to survey the situation. "And a damn good thing, too," he said after a few moments, "'cos if you 'ad, yeh prob'ly wouldn't've survived it."

I stared. "What? But I checked it! It was safe to move!"

Darunia shook his head. "Damned kids," he muttered, "always overlookin' the details. See this 'ere?" He pointed at a very small crack in the rock above the one we were pushing. I squinted at it. Hadn't noticed that.

"Yes?" I said. "What about it?"

He rolled his eyes. "'Wot abou' it,'" he scoffed. "Wot _abou'_ it is'at if yeh'd pushed this rock 'ere, that one woulda lost its support an' without opposin' pressure it prob'ly woulda snapped an' brought the rest on top of it down with it, _that _is wot abou' it. Cracks are tricky business, damned nuisances, oi tell yeh."

I hadn't understood half the words the Goron had just uttered but I now saw why that crack would've been a problem. If that rock had broken it would've been bad news. Now I was _really_ glad I hadn't been able to push it. "Then...how do we get it?"

He snorted. "_Get in_?" he repeated disbelievingly. "Yeh don't, simple as that! At least not this way. Anywurr else yeh think there's an openin'?"

I frowned. "Not that I know of..." Now what was I going to do? And _where_ were Link and Zelda? If they had ran into _trouble_ somewhere I was going to have to kill _both_ of them.

Darunia narrowed his eyes. "Wot's in there, anyhow?" he asked me suspiciously. "Where'd oll them Zoras go off teh?"

"I already told you, we don't know!" I said, a bit impatiently. "We haven't seen any in over two days, and they certainly weren't in there when the place collapsed!"

As far as we knew.

Darunia looked around quickly, then shook his head. "Collapsed? Nah, this wosn't an accident, no sir. This wos deliberate, no doubt about it."

I froze and turned to look at him slowly. "C-could you say that again?" It wasn't very often I was speechless, but this time got me pretty close.

He looked at me as though I were a bit dim. "Wot, yeh deaf, Sheik? Oi _said_, this wos deliberate! Some damned soul did this on purpose! Look." He walked back a few meters and pointed to some of the rocks down at the very bottom of the chasm, away from the entrance of the Domain, that I hadn't bothered to look at. "Yeh see anythin' strange abou' those rocks there? Anythin'..._off_?"

I stared. "Uh...no?" But even as I said it, I noticed there did seem to be something wrong with the boulders...something unnatural—

"They've been cut," I said in stony realization. **(OMFG THAT PUN WAS ACTUALLY UNINTENTIONAL HOW DID I JUST WRITE THAT)**

Darunia nodded. "Tha's roit," he said, sounding disgusted. The edges of the rocks were too smooth to be natural, and because they were at the very bottom now, it meant that they had probably been the first to fall, seeing as the collapse had simulated an avalanche, starting from the top and bringing every else down with it; because of that, the smooth edges couldn't have been caused by water erosion, and air erosion couldn't have done anything that flat and unblemished. "Whoe'er cut those rocks wos wontin' somethin' loik this teh happen, 'cos no one else in their roit moind woulda dared teh go oll the way up there jus' teh get some stone fer themselves," he continued. He turned to me. "Now yeh listen teh me, Sheik, and yeh listen well. There's somethin' up 'round these parts. Strange things've been 'appinin'. Now, oi don't pretend loik oi know wot's goin' on, but oi _do_ know that i's not good. Yeh heard abou' them Lost Woods, roit? How they've stopped makin' that music they always used teh? There's been people sayin' that i's because Miss Saria's gone missin'. Oi mind my own business, but even oi know that when rumors loik this start goin' 'round..." He dropped his voice. "Well, let's just say that this damned war ain't over yet, no sir. The Sages are fallin' apart, an' nobody knows whoi. Princess Zelda's caretaker, Mistress Impa, she's been—"

Suddenly he stopped. He was staring past me as though he'd seen a ghost, but I barely noticed. "Impa's been what?" I demanded. "Darunia, what—"

"Din's fire," the Goron whispered, fear showing in his black eyes. "Wot the _hell_ is that?!"


	10. Division

**Hey guys! Happy tenth chapter, yay! I posted fast again xD This one is almost 3,000, but I think it's pretty good otherwise. It was fun to write!**

**Review, pretty please! ^_^**

**-Nessa**

* * *

I could hear stomping, metal clanging against metal. I knew what it was. I wanted to turn around but I couldn't. My muscles wouldn't move. Darunia's face was now much more confused and alarmed than scared. Had he recognized it? A split-second later it was so much closer—I shut my eyes and waited for something to happen when I was shoved aside, by whom I couldn't tell, and as I tried to catch myself I toppled over backwards and fell off the edge of the overhang and into the water below.

Thankfully I didn't hit any rocks, but I did get quite a shock and swallow a few more mouthfuls of water than was healthy for my respiratory system. Everything seemed to be going on at once. The next things I knew I was up on high ground again and the Iron Knuckle had fallen over, dead, between Darunia and I, who was looking absolutely shocked and standing stock still.

"Wot jus' even 'appened?" the Goron muttered after a split-second too long of silence.

I took a cautious step towards the empty iron casing. There was nobody in it, it'd just been a normal Iron Knuckle. "How did you...?"

"It just dropped dead of it's own accord," said Darunia, "oi didn't do nothin'!"

I kicked open the chest plate and it fell off the ledge and into the water below. This didn't make any sense. "This thing is an Iron Knuckle," I explained. "It's a minion of Twinrova, practically invincible. And it somehow managed to get its clumsy way up through the rubble here just to fall at your feet and break."

"Twinrova're dead," he managed to say. "This can't've been their doin'."

"The witches aren't dead," said a shaky voice.

Darunia and I both jumped and I turned to find Zelda and Link behind us. The Princess had tear streaks on her face—I could tell that she hadn't thought the ruins would be as bad as they were. No doubt she had now convinced herself that Ttoren was dead.

Honestly, he probably was.

"We followed the Iron Knuckle here," Link said. "That's why it took us so long. It was really slow and we had to get off the horses so it wouldn't notice us."

I blinked. "Did you manage to hurt it? Is that why it just died here?"

He shook his head. "We wanted to see where it was going, we couldn't draw attention—I mean, you don't really see many Iron Knuckles wandering around Hyrule Field, do you?"

I shrugged absently.

"Princess Zelda, Yer 'Ighness?" asked Darunia. "Wot were yeh meanin' by sayin' that the witches weren't dead?"

She didn't look up from surveying the empty suit of armor. "Just a feeling," she mumbled.

I frowned at her, then turned to Link and was surprised to find he'd paled considerably. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He jumped. "What? Nothing."

Nothing. Wasn't it always _nothing_?

I turned and kicked a pebble. "Why won't you two ever tell me anything?" I demanded. "It's really getting annoying, I can tell you're keeping things from me! I'm not _stupid_!"

The silence was much shorter than I had anticipated. Link and Darunia were both just staring at me, but Zelda got up, looking...ashamed?

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "It isn't fair."

I blinked at her, unsure of how to react. I wasn't actually _expecting_ an apology; it was really quite strange. "I...um...I just..."

She flashed me a very quick smile. "Is it just nothing?"

I fumed at her and she almost laughed, but the humor was gone in a second.

"Would somebody please enlighten me on this?" said Darunia gruffly. I'd forgotten he was there. "Oi'm more'n a bit confused."

"It's nothing," we all assured him at the same time; then we all exchanged glances and rolled our eyes.

The Goron huffed and shook his head. "Wull, if you young'uns don't mind, oi'll be goin' back up the mountain, they'll be wonderin' where oi'm at. Nice seein' ya." He curled into a ball and we made way for him as he rolled back down the rocky slope at the speed of Goron. We watched him leave in silence.

It was a long time before any of us spoke again. Zelda sat down next to the empty suit of armor and continued examining it, though I had no idea what for. Link sat with his elbows on his knees and his head rested on his forearms and I returned to the Domain's entrance, looking at the rocks even though I knew it was pointless. I realized what I was soaking wet. I _had_ fallen in the water, after all.

I lost pretty much all sense of time, and suddenly we were sitting in a circle and discussing what we were going to do next.

"I think we should wait," Link was saying. "Give ourselves a bit of time to rest up. We've brought food and all."

"What are we going to do for a whole day?" Zelda asked. "Look at a dead Iron Knuckle?"

I shrugged. "Why not? You seem plenty interested in it."

She made a face at me. "I was checking to see if there were any signs that a person was once in it."

Link frowned. "How would you be able to tell that?"

"I don't really know," she admitted. "It just seemed like the right thing to do."

He seemed skeptical. "Whatever. Does that really matter? I just want to know what it thought it was doing."

"Iron Knuckles don't think," I said abruptly.

He gave me a funny look. "You know what I meant."

I jerked my head in a noncommittal way. "Just saying. Where is this food you were talking about?"

Zelda immediately jumped to her feet. "I'll get it." She took off at a run without waiting for us to say anything.

I shot Link a confused look; he looked just as puzzled. "Doesn't really matter, does it?"

"I guess not," I said.

"What was Darunia doing here?" he asked.

"Kaepora Gaebora told him to come, somehow he knew I was here," I said. "If he hadn't come I probably would've gotten myself killed. I was going to push a rock but I didn't notice where it'd be a problem." Then I remembered the most important things the Goron had told me. "He says that this wasn't an accident."

Link turned to look at me quickly. "How does he figure?"

I pointed towards the rocks at the bottom of the chasm. "Those've been cut. They were at the very top of the cliff initially, so nobody in their right mind would've gone up there just for some stone."

He frowned slightly; I could practically see him working out possibilities of who would've done it, and he came to a conclusion almost instantly. I could tell by his eyes. "I...don't know what to think."

I stiffened a bit. Of course he wasn't going to tell me. "Me neither," I said. "Darunia also said some things about the Sages."

"Like what?"

"He said people thought the Lost Woods have stopped playing music because Saria's missing."

The effect of my words was immediate: the color drained from his face and his eyes grew alarmed. "Missing? How does he know that?"

"I don't think anybody knows. After all, nobody's been _in_ the Lost Woods for a long time now. Everyone's turned into Stalfos for some reason."

He stood up and began pacing; I stood as well. "I've got to go check! Goddesses, if she's missing...she was my best friend when we were little—when _I  
_was little—"

"Who are we talking about?"

We both whirled around. "Sheik says Saria's gone missing!" spluttered Link.

Zelda nearly dropped what she was holding. "_What_?! Why didn't you tell us?"

"We don't _know_ she's gone missing!" I protested. "Darunia said some people think that's why the Lost Woods are silent now and why people keep turning into Stalfos whenever they try to go in."

She looked from Link to me, then back to Link. "You should go," she said firmly.

He was momentarily speechless. "What? No! I'm not leaving you—"

"I'll be fine!" she assured him. "You look for your friend, I look for mine. I'll be with Sheik, anyway."

I coughed. They both looked at me.

"I, er," I began intelligently. "I think I'm going to, um..."

Zelda looked exasperated—she knew what I was getting at. "Look, I hate you too, but seeing as I'm completely useless and _you_ agreed to come with _me_—"

"That was a ages ago!" I protested.

"It was two days!" she retorted.

"That's a long time when your sense of hours and minutes flew out the window after being a hunk of metal for seven years!"

"What?" said Link, probably feeling a bit out of it.

"Nothing!" we both shouted, glaring at each other.

Link sighed. "I'm not going anyway, it doesn't matter."

Zelda turned on him. "Yes," she said, "you are! Even if I have to make you."

They stared at each other for a few moments and I suddenly felt very awkward. "Um, I guess if I really _must_I can deal with her for another day or so," I admitted painfully.

"No," said Link quietly, "it's fine. You can come with me, Sheik. Zelda is going alone."

I got the feeling they'd had a silent conversation in the few seconds we'd been speechless. "Er, okay then. I'm cool with that. When do we leave?"

"Now, I suppose," he said. "We can eat as we ride."

...Ride?

Ohh.

Shit.

I mentally kicked myself. Had I actually just chosen to go ride a horse _all the way_ to Kokiri Forest instead of just walk around and find another way into the Domain? "Oh, um, yeah, right," I stuttered, throwing a quick deathglare at Zelda, who was smirking, though she looked a bit worried as well. Hmm...

Link shook his head as he gathered his stuff. "This is a bad idea," he muttered.

"What is?" I asked.

"Splitting up," he said. "We shouldn't be doing this, it makes us more vulnerable..."

I frowned. "Vulnerable to what?"

He glanced at the empty suit of armor lying a few feet away, and I was suddenly glad I was going with somebody else. I swallowed. "What if we find more of those?" I asked.

"Then we follow it," he said grimly.

"Oh," I said, feeling like a brick had just dropped down into my gut. "Yeah."

I was not ready for this.

* * *

Why, oh _why_ had I chosen to go alone? I can't handle alone! What was I thinking?

I don't actually think I _was_ thinking. I was just...doing. Saying. Idioting.

That's a verb now. "To idiot."

Kill me now.

We all walked down to the end of Zora's River, where Link and I had left Epona and Takumi. As funny as it was to watch Sheik on a horse, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. After all, horses can be pretty scary if you don't know how to handle them. Maybe after a while he'd get used to it, though, who knew.

Just before mounting Epona, Link took out his fairy ocarina and gave it to me, holding my hands around the scratchy, hand-cut wood. "If you ever need us," he said, "if you ever get lost, if _anything _happens—"

"We're blaming you," called Sheik from Takumi's back, looking nervous, "since this was your idea."

Link cracked a dry grin and I laughed a little. "Just play the song I use to call Epona. You know the notes, right?"

I nodded. For some reason I was holding back tears. This just seemed so much like a goodbye. _Too _much like a goodbye. "It'll be fine," I said.

He gazed at me intently for a moment, then put his arms around me and kissed my forehead. I shut my eyes tightly and breathed deeply, my head on his shoulder. He smelled nice. Don't really know what the smell was, but it was nice.

I wanted to stay there forever, but I didn't resist when he pulled away. "I'll see you soon," he said softly.

"I love you," I said.

He offered me a very small smile. "I love you more," he responded, then turned and mounted Epona. "Give us a holler if you find Ttoren as well, okay?"

"I don't think I can shout that loudly," I admitted jokingly.

"Naw," said Sheik, "you can scream so loudly that they'd hear you in Termina."

"Termina doesn't exist!" I retorted. "Your argument is invalid."

He snorted and shook his head, and I made a face at him. "Go kill some Stalfos for me, alright?"

As they rode south, towards Kokiri Forest, I turned the opposite way and headed towards Kakariko Village, talking quietly in order to distract myself from my paranoia.

It was time to play some hide-and-seek with Zora's Domain.

* * *

_What is wrong, Madam Sage! Are you not pleased?_

_Pleased? I am pleased. Not with you, but yes, I am pleased._

_Why are you not pleased with us, Madam Sage?_

_Because all you did was enchant the owl! It was feeble magic, as well, and it could've gone wrong in so many different ways!_

_We couldn't have influenced the Sage of Fire directly, Madam, it would've been too risky!_

_Bold words, for such parasites as you._

_I...forgive me, Madam Sage, I spoke out of turn._

_Ha! Damn right you did, witch. What would our Lord think of that? Do you know what he would do to you?_

_Please, Madam Sage, it was nothing—_

I _will decide whether or not it was "nothing"! You have no authority! I would not be surprised if our God did away with you as soon as he was resurrected!_

_Please, please, I apologize! Forgive me!_

.._._Forgive you_? You are not only bold and disrespectful, but you are selfish, too, as it seems. If you had any decency you would have sacrificed yourself to our God as part of the rituals long ago! Maybe that _is _a good idea..._

_Madam Sage, please! Mercy, I beg of you!_

_Hmph! Mercy. Our Lord and God know no mercy...though perhaps I am different. Very well. You shall be kept alive, witch._

_...Th-thank you, thank you! Merciful lady, thank you—_

_Stop your babbling at once! I had not finished. You shall be kept alive if, and _only_ if you succeed to bring back to me the last of the Zoras. The beast is wandering around the east side of the land somewhere, last I checked, quite confused and half dead. It should be an _easy_ task for someone with such little brain._

_Of c-course, Madam Sage! Of course! Consider it done!_

_It will not be considered done until I have its body lain before me. Do not disappoint me, Kotake, or you'll go the same way as your sister. I wouldn't be surprised if she stopped eating any day now, locked up in that horrid, tiny cell..._

_No indeed, Madam Sage, I shan't fail!_

_No, you shan't. Your deadline is three days._

_...Of...of course, Madam Sage._

_Three days, witch. Three days and if that Zora isn't captured and delivered to me by midnight of the third day, you're as good as dead. In fact, you're better—your body will be torn up as sacrifice to the rituals. Do you hear me?_

_I hear you, y-yes of c-course, Madam Sage! I hear you crystal clear!_

_Good. That means you won't ever question my instructions again. Begone!_

* * *

**(Midnight of the third day...seem familiar? xD I make too many unintentional puns.)**


	11. After It's All Over

**Hello! I know, I know, I haven't posted in forever. I've been having a bit of writer's block, so bear with me here. This is a filler chapter till I finish the one I'm working on, pretty short, just to keep you entertained. It takes right after Ganon is defeated in Ocarina of Time, but under the assumption that Link was never sent back to his own time (or else this entire story wouldn't exist). It's a bit (*cough* a lot *cough*) angst-y, I was half-asleep when I wrote this, so if it's bad I apologize x'D But thanks for your patience! Enjoy and please review! :3**

**-Nessa**

* * *

"Where is he?" I demanded, practically falling through the door of the small Kakariko house. "Is he alright?"

Impa made a small "shh" noise and jerked her head at the bed in the corner. "He's sleeping."

I frowned as I shut the door behind me. "Sleeping?" I whispered loudly. "Wasn't he just in a coma for three days? That's an awful lot of sleep already."

The Sheikah shook her head. "It takes a lot of work for your body to keep itself in a coma. It definitely isn't anything like sleeping, Princess."

I paused for a moment. "But that means he's going to be fine then? If he's out of a coma?"

"Hopefully," said Impa unreassuringly. "It could also possibly mean his body is just too exhausted to continue. He's still very sick."

I sat on the edge of the bed and lightly touched the lower part of Link's forehead that wasn't covered by the icy cloth. He was burning up. "But he can't die," I said blankly. "He saved my life."

"And those of many others," Impa agreed, standing up from the table, where she'd been reading something written in a language I didn't recognize, and putting on her cloak. "If you'll excuse me, Princess, I must start off to attend to an injured Goron now, or I will be late."

I stood as well. "When will you be back?" I asked.

"Tomorrow morning," she said, then glanced over her shoulder as she opened the door to add, "Oh, and Princess Zelda?"

"Yes?" I said obediently.

She looked at Link briefly then back at me. "You should tell him you love him. It might keep him from doing such rash things in the future."

I stared. I could feel my cheeks burning. How did she know? I was speechless and stood there for a few seconds with my mouth open (a bit like a fish) before I stammered unconvincingly, "I..._what_?"

She smiled, something anyone rarely saw from her. "His compress will need changing in a few minutes. Good evening, Princess." Then she stepped out the door into the night and shut it gently behind her.

I stood stock-still for a few seconds, then sat back on the edge of Link's bed. The blanket was twisted around him in an uncomfortable-looking way, as though he'd been thrashing around in his sleep. The criss-crossed strings that tied the collar of his undershirt had been yanked at and partially undone, like he'd wanted to get rid of them but hadn't had the strength or effort to actually unknot them. He was practically emanating heat, and I was so shocked by it that I pulled my hand away when I touched his cheek.

He stirred a little and mumbled in his sleep but didn't wake up until I soaked his compress again and put it back on his forehead. He blinked his eyes open—I got the notion that he couldn't actually see much anyway—and whispered, "Am I dead?"

"Nope," I said, unsure whether or not he was joking. "Go back to sleep."

He rubbed his eyes and began to sit up but I gently pushed him back down. "Don't exert yourself," I said firmly. When he didn't respond, I asked, suddenly rather worried, "Can you hear me, Link?"

He frowned and shut his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. "Zelda." His voice was hoarse from lack of moisture, and he coughed.

"Yes," I agreed. His compress fell off as he reoriented himself, and I took it and began bathing his face. I applied a bit of pressure on his cheekbones because I knew that that made most headaches feel a little better, just in case he had one. "How do you feel?"

"Awful," he said. Good, he wasn't trying to lie to me. It wouldn't have worked anyway. "That is nice though." He lifted a hand weakly and gestured at what I was doing with the ice press.

"Okay," I said. "Tell me if I hurt you or something."

"I can't feel it."

I froze for a second. "You can't?" I said anxiously. "Then how come you said it was nice?"

"I wanted to think it was."

"Well," I said slowly, a little unnerved, "it's probably helping your fever, so...that's good." I inwardly kicked myself for sounding so dumb.

"Thanks," he said. His voice was so quiet I could barely hear it. I started bathing his neck and by his ears with the cloth.

"We were thinking about, when you're a little better, taking you to Hyrule Castle Town to maybe find a more experienced doctor," I said, to make pointless conversation (that quickly went wrong).

"I don't want to die in an infirmary," he mumbled, putting an arm over his eyes.

I felt a sudden ache in my chest that made me want to cry. "You're not going to die," I told him, surprised at the strength in my own voice. "You hear that? You're not going to die. You're going to be fine."

"I don't know what's happening anymore," he said. "It's hardly better than being in a coma than being awake and in this condition."

I frowned. "How did you know you were in a coma?" I asked.

"I woke up for a few minutes once and heard somebody talking about it," he said. "I don't know when it was."

"And...you remembered it?" I said. "That's pretty amazing."

"I remember everything," he said. "I remember it too much. I killed so many living things, Zelda."

For a moment I didn't know how to respond to this abrupt change in topic. "And you also saved even more," I reminded him gently.

"Maybe the Goddesses are punishing me," he said, seemingly too tired to put any bitterness into his tone. "Maybe that's why nobody knows what's got me sick."—Had he heard us saying that too?—"Maybe I'm supposed to die."

I stared at him for a split-second. "No," I said. I could feel hot tears welling up in my eyes. "You can't die. You won't die, okay? You _can't_ die."

"What's stopping me?" he asked, sounding melancholy, like he didn't even care anymore.

"_I _am," I said shakily. "Me, and Impa, and the villagers—we all want you to live. We're trying to help you."

"I'm not worth it," he said.

"Yes," I insisted, "you are! Why can't you see that? Have you really lost your will to live, after all you've done? You can't leave us!" _You can't leave _me_._

He didn't say anything, but his unspoken message was loud and clear.

I sniffed and wiped my eyes with my free hand. "You don't get it," I said.

"What don't I get?" he asked, not sounding curious in the least.

I shook my head. "You don't get it," I repeated. "I love you."

He was silent. My words seemed to echo in the small room. _I love you._

After a while, he asked, "How long?"

"Since you came back," I answered simply. There was no need to explain where from.

I thought he was going to protest again, and say something else that denied he was worth my time or affection, but as stoic as he tried to be, he couldn't act indifferent forever. He took his hand away from his eyes and opened them—beautiful, troubled blue eyes—but didn't look at me. I slowly lowered my head onto his chest and he put an arm around me. I could feel his heartbeat against my cheek and his breath rasping in his lungs. He sounded sick. His skin was still very hot; I could feel it through his undershirt.

I think he might've tried to talk to me, but I don't really remember. In the few minutes before I drifted off, it began to occur to me that it was over. This battle that we'd been fighting since we were children...it was finally done. After seven years' worth of death and destruction, I wasn't going to have to dress up as a Sheikah anymore and look around corners before I went anywhere to make sure that there weren't any Moblins waiting to ambush me...I was going to be able to just live a normal life. We had all been too lonely for too long and I wanted to change that. It would take a long time, but we would make it happen.

But it _couldn't_ happen. Not the way I wanted it to. I was a princess. I would rule the country one day. I couldn't run away again and dress up as a commoner, I didn't want to live any more lies.

When I did drift off, my dream (of which I couldn't recall the details for the life of me) felt hollow and empty and through the entire thing, part of my brain was half-awake, and when I woke I found myself staring at a fire keese on the ceiling. I frowned, then blinked and it was gone. What a strange thing to hallucinate. I turned over and fell asleep again, thoughts of various types of keese and evil things filling my mind.

The next time my dreams forced me awake I was crying, and the worst part was that I didn't know why.


End file.
